Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

New school, new beginnings or something like that. Truth be told, Cellbit didn’t really believe in all of that. In the end, every time he went to a new school, it ended the same way. Him and his sister would keep to themselves because the others thought they were too weird, too nerdy or because they were queer. So they would either be complete outsiders and never talk to anyone else or they would get bullied.

But their parents were very much convinced that this time it would be different. That this time him and Bagi would make friends and that everything was going to change.

They seemed to forget the fact that they actually had friends. Before they started moving because of their parents jobs, him and Bagi actually had friends in the small town they lived in when they still lived in Brazil. It was a small group of the neighborhoods children. They used to hang out all the time, playing all kinds of games outside all day long. They would have sleep overs and play in the woods. They even had a little “house” built out of sticks in the forest near their house.

But then the moving started when they were about 8 years old. They didn’t see each other ever since as they sadly lost contact. And since then, their family would only spend one or two years in one place before their parents company made them move again. First, they moved around in Brazil for a bit before completely leaving the country to go to America for a few years and then they spend some time in Spain. Sometimes they would have to move just when they had started to warm up to the other students and finally fit in. When he was younger, Cellbit believed that they did it on purpose.

Sometimes when he was younger, Cellbit would resent their parents for this. For ripping them away from any emotional connection they ever made and leaving them to always be the new kids. But now he knew that it wasn’t their fault and that his parents were also not too happy about moving that frequently.

So once again him and Bagi were about to start at new school. Safe to say, neither of them was too thrilled to do so. Any kind of nervousness had disappeared by the third time they had to move, and left was only a feeling of discomfort at the thought of having to do all of this again. The good thing was that this was the last time as Bagi and Cellbit just turned 17 and were now in their senior year of high school. The other good thing was that they didn’t move in the middle of the school year this time but just a few days before the new school year started so it wouldn’t be too awkward. They would still be the new kids, but they wouldn’t stand out that much.

Well, it wasn’t like they actively tried not to stand out. They used to do that when they were younger. Hide their personalities and desperately try to fit in. Sometimes it would work but they would just end up feeling like shit because they couldn’t be themselves. So they stopped doing that pretty quickly, even though they now stood out a lot with the way they looked and everything else.

With permission by their parents, they were allowed to get their hair dyed by a hairdresser so it didn’t look awful. Bagi dyed the majority of her hair blonde and only left a strand of her hair brown, while Cellbit did the opposite and bleached one strand blonde so that they were matching.

Their clothing style was pretty similar as well. Today Cellbit was wearing black straight fit jeans, a white turtleneck and a olive green bomber jacket over it with black boots. Bagi was wearing olive green wide fit jeans, a black long sleeve shirt and a jean jacket over it. She was wearing the same boots as him and also a brown hat. Bagi would always say that Cellbit was way more emo, which technically was true but in terms of style, they would exchange clothes way too often for her to say that.

••••••••••

Cellbit looked over to his right where Bagi was sitting and nervously playing with the rings on her finger while looking out the window as the bus was driving by a tree line. The bus was quite full, but they were lucky to get on early to they could still sit next to each other.

“No shot you’re still nervous after all this time. Come on, we’ve done this a thousand times.”, he elbowed her softly in the side.

“Shut up, I know. But something is different today. I don’t even know if it’s good or bad. Do you not feel it?”, she turned to look at him, the look in her eyes serious and nervous.

Cellbit slowly shook his head. “Nope, feels like every other time we’ve done this.”, that didn’t seem to calm her down as the look on her face didn’t change so he took her hand and squeezed it quickly. “It will be fine, I promise. No matter what happens, we’re always together, remember? Mystery Twins forever, right?”, he lowered his voice for the last part while grinning.

It was an inside joke between the two of them. A few years ago, one guy at the school that they were in at the time, tried to mock them for their behavior by calling them ‘oh so mysterious’ when in reality, they just did not want to talk to him. And ever since that, they decided to call themselves the ‘Mystery Twins’. Also, because they both did like to solve puzzles and codes and both of them were really into true crime and mysterious disappearances, so it kind of fit.

Bagi squeezed his hand back and smiled a little as well.
“You’re right, it’s probably nothing.”

••••••••••

The first lesson went surprisingly well. They did the usual ice breaking sessions, and he got to know a few of their classmates. They all seemed to be okay. He could tell that most of them were also not from here because of their accents but then he remembered that this was an international school that taught in four languages: English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. So he was delighted to hear that other students were also from Brazil. One of the guys, Pac was particularly excited to meet someone else who’s from Brazil and immediately invited him and Bagi to their table at lunch.

Pac was about the same height as him and he had short black hair and dark eyes. He was wearing a blue sweater with Pacman on it. He smiled brightly from ear to ear when learning about new Brazilians. He seemed to be really nice and Cellbit got a bit of a mischievous vibe from him.

So far so good.

The real problem started in the second lesson of the day. It was his first lesson without Bagi, and everything went downhill from there. Well maybe it wasn’t that bad and Cellbit was just being dramatic.

How classes worked at this high school was that you had to take a language test before every new school year to test your fluency in all four of the languages they taught. Based of those tests, you would be put into different classes in those different languages with people who were on the same level in that language as you were. Bagi and Cellbit scored differently though because Cellbit picked up Spanish and English a lot more during the time they lived in Spain and America, than Bagi. So most of Cellbit’s classes were in Portuguese, Spanish and English while hers were mostly in Portuguese.

For example, Cellbit’s Portuguese classes were Math, Science and Portuguese. His Spanish classes were History, P.E and Spanish and his English classes were Social Studies, Arts and English. The only French class he had was the beginners French since he didn’t know any.

The only classes him and Bagi had together were his Portuguese classes and the French class. The first class had been fine because they were mostly native Portuguese speakers there and some others who were on a high level of Portuguese. But now he had History in Spanish while Bagi had Social Studies in Portuguese.

Now it wasn’t the first time that they had separate classes, so that wasn’t really the problem. The problem was that Cellbit was now in a class with Spanish-Speakers all by himself when he hadn’t spoken Spanish in ages. Somehow, he managed to score so high on the Spanish test that he was put in the same class as the native speakers. This should’ve given him some confidence but as he sat down and tried to listen to the conversations around him, he barely understood anything.

The other problem was that there was a really handsome guy sitting across the room that he couldn’t stop looking at. The guy was wearing a Spiderman zip up hoodie and a blue bandana that more of less tamed his messy brown hair. He seemed to be really popular because he kept on talking to everyone around him, making them and himself laugh a lot. He looked truly beautiful when laughing with the way he would throw his head back and laugh really loudly and then try to hold back his laugh and hide his smile behind his hand when he realized how loud he was. His laugh was the kind of laugh that practically forced you to at least crack a smile. Yeah, no Cellbit was totally not gay panicking on his first day of school over some random jock who was most likely straight.

Right before the teacher came in, a guy in a beanie and blue hoodie came to sit next him on the free chair. He was a bit shorter than Cellbit and he could smell the cold cigarette smoke on him. He smiled at him kindly as he sat down.

“You’re new right?”, he whispered to him in Spanish. Cellbit just nodded in response.

“Hi, I’m Quackity. I’m from Mexico. You look like you’re not a native Spanish speaker. Let me guess, France?”, Quackity grinned while holding out his hand for him to shake. He spoke a bit slower and more clearly than the other people around him, so he was easier to understand.

“Nope, Brazil. I’m Cellbit. How did you know?”, he answered in Spanish as well while taking Quackity’s hand and shaking it slightly before letting go again.

“I could tell by the way you were looking around all terrified and confused because you couldn’t understand shit.”, he said dryly.

Cellbit’s eyes widened in shock. He thought he was hiding his confusion pretty well.

Quackity started laughing a little and pat him on the shoulder. “I’m joking, the teacher told me that you were not a native speaker and might struggle with our different accents and dialects, so he told me to sit next to you because I was the student representative last year and because I think my Spanish is a bit easier to understand.”

Cellbit smiled and nodded a little. “Thank you”

“No need to thank me. Also, your Spanish is fine, don’t worry about it so much. Some of us speak worse Spanish than you do, believe me”

They both smiled at each other before the teacher clapped his hands once to get everyone’s attention to start the class.
During class he found out that the handsome guy was called Roier because the teacher called his name multiple times to tell him to be quiet as he kept on talking to the people around him. Towards the end of the lesson, he warned him by saying,

“You know I’m not afraid to seat you with someone else, I don’t even know why you think you can get away with you three sitting together.”

As she pointed at the two guys sitting in the second row, Quackity leaned over to him and whispered. “These guys are Mariana and Roier. Pretty much the most popular guys in school. They will always sit next to each other but the teachers can’t stand them, so they end up getting separated every year. You might end up sitting next to one of them.”

Cellbit looked at Quackity with confusion.
“Why me?”

“Because you’re quiet”, the Mexican grinned at him. “It always gets the quiet ones.”

Cellbit nodded in acknowledgment and looked back down at his paper. Did he secretly hope that he would be the one to sit next to Roier? Maybe but you can’t really blame him for that. Not that he had any intention of ever talking to him. That guy was for one, definitely straight and two, way too cool for him.

••••••••••

The rest of the day went by smoothly. In the classes he had with Quackity, he would explain to him some stuff about the school and also introduce him to a few students, or just tell him the gossip about them. He seemed like a really friendly guy, so Cellbit didn’t mind sticking to his side for a bit. They ended up separating for lunch and Cellbit finally reunited with Bagi when he entered the Cafeteria. They got their food on the trays while Cellbit told her a bit about Quackity and his other courses. Before she could tell him about how her classes went, Pac was already waving them over to their table where two other guys were sitting.

“Hey guys! These are my friends Mike and Felps”, the black-haired man pointed at the two guys sitting at the table. Mike was wearing a simple green long sleeve shirt and a pair of glasses. He had dyed pink hair that was slowly growing out, he waved at them kindly. Felps was just a mess of curly hair lying on the table, sleeping. He couldn’t see his face, but his hands and arms were covered in drawings and lines, probably made with some marker in class.

Him and Bagi sat down on the free seats and they all, except Felps, started chatting about how their day has been going, the teachers, the students and basically anything at all. They were all really nice and Cellbit was really relieved that everything seemed to be going well.

Bagi told him about how she met some of the other girls in their year. One of them was called Baghera who was from Switzerland and the other was called Ironmouse who was from Puerto Rico.

“They are pretty nice. Baghera hangs out with the French mostly and Mouse is a bit of a floater between the Spanish and English speakers.”, Pac piped in and then started to tell them about the other people in their year.

“So Quackity is dating this guy called Luzu but none of us have really seen him yet. Some of the Spanish speakers apparently saw him once or twice but they could be lying. Foolish used to go out with a guy in the year above us but he graduated now, and I think he moved away, I don’t know if they are still together. I think Niki has had a crush on Jaiden for ages but Jaiden doesn’t date, or I just haven’t seen her with anyone. Oh and everyone thinks Roier and one of the cheerleaders and dating but personally, I don’t buy it. A guy with that ass is not straight even if he wants everyone to think he is.”

Cellbit coughed at the last bit and looked at Pac in shock. He could not believe what he had just heard come out of that boys mouth. Not only that apparently everyone at this school was gay but also Roier? The jock guy who looked like he would hate-crime him? No shot.

Pac noticed the look on his face and rolled his eyes.
“Come on have you seen that ass? He might seem like a jock but that is a gay guy if I’ve ever seen one and I can say that I’m also not straight.” Well at least him and Bagi weren’t going to get bullied for being queer. That already happened enough times.

Suddenly someone joined them at the table, putting down his books on the table before sitting down. It was a guy with brown hair which framed his face nicely and dark eyes. He was dressed in black with a few white details and accessories here and there.

“Don’t let your sweetheart hear that or he will get jealous that you’re looking at other men’s asses”

“Who? Fit? I told you we’re just friends”, Pac protested.

“Yeah sure”, the new guy looked at Cellbit and Bagi before grinning. “Hi, I’m Guaxinim, nice to meet you. Pac and Fit have a thing going on for months now, neither of them wants to admit that they like the other but it’s really obvious.”

“Oh yeah you want to go there? What about you flirting with everyone because your crush thinks it’s only platonic? You want to talk about that?”

Guaxinim let out a dramatic gasp while clutching his chest like he just had a heart attack. “How dare you-”

Felps suddenly lifted his head to interrupt the two, “Girls stop fighting, we all know that you’re both pathetic gays. Now shut up and let me sleep”

Guaxinim and Pac looked him as he laid his head back on the table with such bewilderment that both Bagi and Cellbit couldn’t stop themselves from laughing. The others soon joined them in their laughter.

••••••••••

On their way home Cellbit told Bagi everything Quackity had told him and also about Roier.

“It’s been one day at the new school, and you already have a new hopeless crush on a straight guy. That’s a new record, last time it took you a week”, she smirked.

“Yeah well he’s pretty, what am I supposed to do? We will see how long you will last until you fall for a straight girl. Your record is three days.”, Bagi opened her mouth and was about to argue with him.

“No don’t even think about it I know what you’re going to say.”, he mimicked Bagi’s voice really poorly by just speaking in a higher tone, mocking her. “I didn’t have a crush on Pilar.”,he spoke normally again, squinting his eyes while pointing at her. “Yes, you did. You went all red when she asked you about what eyeshadow you used”

“I am never talking to you again.”, Bagi looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, her arms crossed in front of her chest. “You’re the actual worst”

“You love me”

“No, I don’t. Actually, I hate you”

“You love me”

Silence.

“Yeah, whatever I guess I do.”

••••••••••

In the following days, Cellbit got to know a bunch of other people who were all really nice. He met Pac’s current crush, situationship or whatever it actually was, called Fit. A bald American guy with a deep voice who was pretty funny and excited to learn Portuguese to impress Pac. Only in a platonic way of course.

He also met a French guy named Etoiles. He was a super funny guy who he also really enjoyed talking to. He had offered him to help him with French in exchange for some help in Portuguese, which he obviously agreed with. Apparently, Pac used to have a big crush on him, but Etoiles doesn’t date apparently, at least that’s what Guaxinim told him. He also told him that even though Etoiles didn’t look like it, he was probably one of the most dangerous guys in school. Behind nerdy glasses, a Pacman shirt and black jeans, was a guy who was trained in a bunch of martial arts and fighting styles. Pac said that Etoiles could kill someone in mere seconds, but Cellbit didn’t know how much of that was exaggeration.

He had also met the guy called Foolish who Pac talked about on the first day. He was quite a hyper and extroverted guy with a lot of energy but also really fun talking to. They met in Arts class and somehow Cellbit was surprised at Foolish’s skill in pottery and anything crafty. He was generally really creative, something he just didn’t expect from a guy who not only looked like but actually was a jock. For once no one really had or used to have crush on said guy but apparently the whole school agreed that he was really good looking and the moment he was confirmed to be single, guys, girls and everyone else would be in line to be his next lover.

He met a bunch of other people as well, some he couldn’t remember the name of but for the most part, they were all really nice people.

He still didn’t get to talk to Roier, but he’s been told lots of things by the people around him. Some better than others.
He found out that Roier was the captain of the school’s basketball team. He seemed to be dating a girl called Tina, with Pac being the only person who didn’t believe it. Some people he talked to, found him annoying because of how loud he just generally was. But for the most of it, Roier seemed like a person people liked. He wasn’t like most popular jocks Cellbit had met, no Roier seemed to be a good person that was respectful of everyone and liked to help people. He seemed to be always smiling and making other people laugh. He was a social guy who had friends in every class and seemed to always fill the room with good energy. But that could also just be Cellbit’s personal opinion.

What he also found out, was that Roier was quite bad at History, which was probably part of the reason why he was never really paying attention in class. He could tell that the teacher was slowly losing her patience and that it would only take maybe a week or two until she would sit Roier somewhere else.

Cellbit was absolutely correct when he assumed that Bagi would break her record for falling for a straight girl. On her second day she discovered that she had a Spanish class with Tina, Roier’s supposed girlfriend. He hadn’t seen her yet, but Bagi swore that she was the most beautiful girl she had ever seen. Of course, him and his twin had to have a crush on one of the only straight couples in this school.

The worst class Cellbit had was Spanish P.E class. Something he had been dreading over the past week. See Cellbit wasn’t horrible at sports, but he was definitely not good at them either. He would rather do anything else than run or play soccer or something like that. And the most handsome guy on the school just had to be a jock which made everything just so much worse. He would have to watch him be all hot and sweaty while Cellbit himself would just embarrass himself by tripping over his own feet.

At least Quackity and Missa seemed to dread this class as much as he did so he didn’t have to suffer alone.

Their teacher told them so warm up by themselves and run a few rounds before they would start playing basketball. Cellbit watched Roier’s face light up at that, so couldn’t even be that upset about it. The warmup wasn’t as bad, while all the sport guys ran ahead and did their thing, Cellbit stayed behind with Quackity, Missa and a guy called Slimecicle. All of them struggling a bit but eventually they all ran their rounds and were ready to go.

Picking teams was as awkward as always, with Roier and Foolish being the team captains that had to choose their teammates. The two of them standing in front of the rest of the class, judging who was best for their teams. Even though it wasn’t an important game at all, and it literally didn’t matter who won, both of them treated it like their life was on the line.

Foolish didn’t play basketball, he told Cellbit that he liked American Football a lot more, but he still knew his classmates well and knew who was good for basketball. Roier let out a yell when Foolish asked Mariana to join his side, being the tallest made him the golden gem apparently, even if he didn’t look like he was good at basketball. Apparently Cellbit was deemed tall enough as well as Foolish called him to his team pretty early on. Even though he wanted to be on Roier’s team, Cellbit was mostly glad that he wasn’t chosen last.

The whole game afterwards wasn’t that interesting. He mostly tried to not stand in the way or get hit by the ball and maybe once or twice actually held the ball in his hands, but he passed it onto someone else pretty quickly. Apart from those moments, he didn’t pay much attention to the game.

He knew that his team had lost because even though you're supposed to be tall for basketball and his team had the tallest guy in their year, Roier swept the floor with them. Not that Roier wasn't tall, but he was still a bit shorter than Cellbit. He just was a pro at basketball, or maybe Cellbit was just easy to impress.

Cellbit was a lot more interested in other things on the court than the actual game though, like how good Roier looked while playing all seriously. He knew Bagi would laugh at him if she knew what the was doing but what was he supposed to do? Not look at Roier’s trained muscular arms that were fully exposed due to his Tank top? Sue him for having eyes and using them.

••••••••••

At the end of the second week, right before he was about to walk into the classroom where he had history , his teacher stopped him from walking through the door.

“Hey Cellbit, come here for a second. I need to talk to you about something”, she waved him over, a few steps away from the door.

“What’s going on?”, he asked, worried that he might have done something wrong.

“You know how I’ve been talking about re-doing the seating arrangements because certain students have been disruptive during class?”, she said as if he didn’t exactly know that she was talking about Roier and Mariana.

Cellbit nodded, already guessing where this was going. He tried not to get too excited.

“I’ve decided to seat Roier next to you. I don’t want you to see it as a punishment. It’s mostly because you’re very interested in the subject, and I am hoping that, that will motivate him as well. Also, I believe Quackity already helped you with your start in class and lucky for you Roier is probably the easiest to understand for non-spanish speakers, so he can also help you. I hope this is alright with you?”

She already had him at the first sentence, but Cellbit pretended like he was paying attention for the rest of her little monologue and not celebrating on the inside. He smiled at her while nodding.

“Yeah, that’s fine for me. I think we’ll get along”

“Perfect, you can go now.”, she gestured him to head inside the classroom.

He tried to hide his excitement when he opened to the classroom door and saw Roier already sitting in the chair Quackity normally sat in and pretended to look at his phone before putting it in his pocket. He walked over to his desk and sat down next to Roier. When he looked to his side to greet him, the other was already looking at him curiously.

The sun was shining through the window behind him, it was still early in the morning making everything look golden. A window was slightly open since it was still pretty warm outside even in the mornings. A light breeze blew through Roier’s hair, which looked golden brown due to the sunlight. His eyes were still focused on Cellbit, the dark brown color reflecting warmth and comfort just like his gaze. Cellbit felt his heart beating faster when him and Roier locked eyes for a second.

This was the first time Cellbit had been so close to Roier. He could almost count the few freckles and beauty marks on his tan skin. As he smiled, his eyes almost disappeared into two half-moons and two dimples appeared on his cheeks. He never noticed how long his lashes were up until now that he was looking at him this closely.

In conclusion, Roier was still one of the most beautiful people Cellbit had ever seen. He felt like he had just been looking at a painting as if he was an art critic or something. There was still a small smile on his lips as he started talking.

“Hey”

“Hi”

Oh, this was going to be a disaster.

Chapter Text

Another year of school, another year full of chances. At least that’s what her mother would always tell her whenever Tina talked about dropping out. It wasn’t like she was bad at school or was bullied but sometimes she just couldn’t do it anymore. Going in this building and listening to the teachers all day about something she really didn’t care about. Every once in a while, she just got fed up with everything.

And honestly it wasn’t all that bad most of the time, but sometimes the pressure of always exceeding in every class got to her. Her parents had pretty high expectations of her, so getting good grades was a must. And Tina was smart enough to be one of the top students in her year but sometimes that still wasn’t enough. They strived perfection while Tina just wanted to be a normal teenager, it was really frustrating.

The only reason why she didn’t drop out already was seeing her closest friends. Her friends Foolish and Jaiden who she just met recently but got along with really well and her best friend Roier who she’d known since pre-school. Especially seeing Roier everyday made it all worthwhile.

They had been best friends for ages, and they were always really close. They hung out outside of school whenever they could and generally could not be separated unless it was because of class. Roier’s family had moved to the city from Mexico when they were both in kindergarten and that’s how they met. They pretty much clicked instantly and ever since then they were inseparable.

Both families and the people around them had been rooting for them to date and eventually get married since they were pre-school. For years Tina would hear her parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts and just about everyone say things like:

“He’s such nice boy, when will he ask you on a date?”

“You two are always together, how can you not date already?”

“You might not be ready now but in a few years, you will make a beautiful couple”

“Oh, the wedding will be so wonderful.”

Which in hindsight were just really weird things to say, even though Tina knew it wasn’t meant with bad intent. Tina guessed that this was just normal to them and that they didn’t know any better.

At some point people just assumed that they were dating even though they weren’t. Because surely a boy and a girl had to be dating if they spent so much time together, and just didn’t want to acknowledge it. When it first started, they would try to tell people that it wasn’t true but most of them just didn’t believe them so at some point they just let people believe what they wanted.

They did try to date for a bit, mostly because everyone kept telling them that they should, and not because they actually liked each other in a romantic way. Their relationship had originally started when they were about 14 years old. They had broken up pretty much immediately after realizing that there were just no feelings from either side. Two years later, they started dating again out of pure convenience. People thinking that they were actually dating had more benefits to it than you’d think.

First of all, both of their families stopped nagging them about dating the other or about dating someone in general. Both her and Roier came from very traditional Christian households with hers being Korean and Roier’s being Mexican. Which meant dating someone proper, from a family with similar standards and also definitely someone who was from the other gender, was expected from them. By them dating, the expectations were met, and their families were satisfied.

The second benefit was that people stopped hitting on them. Which yeah sounds very narcissistic, but it indeed became a problem as they got older. They knew that they were both conventionally attractive which meant that they got lots of attention. Both of them pretty quickly felt like people only liked them because they looked pretty and not because of their personalities, none of the people that were trying to flirt with them seemed to be actually interested in them. Sometimes it felt like people were treating them as some kind of trophy.

But that completely stopped when they started to walk around school holding hands. Well people still came up and told the other how lucky they were to date the other or that their babies would look so beautiful and overall, just really weird and objectifying comments but it was manageable.

The third benefit was that they both didn’t need to come out. Both of them found out that they liked the same gender around the same time. No one knew apart from themselves and their closest friends, Jaiden, Foolish and Mariana. As tolerant and queer their school already was, they both didn’t feel like them coming out now after everyone thought they were dating, would go over that well. And just because the school had a lot of queer people, didn’t mean that there were no homophobic people. Even within the queer people there was lots of homophobia since some people apparently weren’t “queer enough” and others were “too queer”.

But the problem wasn’t really their school because they could probably handle some weird comments. Their problem came more from their families. To put it lightly, them being lesbian and gay was not going to be exactly as welcomed as the two of them dating. It was too risky to only come out at school because of how gossip travelled in a small town like theirs.

They knew this because the rumors of them actually dating, started in school. They didn’t even get to tell their parents because just a few days after it started at school, their parents confronted them about the rumors.

The fourth benefit for them was just that they could be as close as they wanted without anyone making comments anymore. And it was nice to just have someone at your side. They were always close, including physically, which is what probably started the rumors in the first place because apparently a girl and a boy couldn’t be leaning on each other without dating or something. Now people wouldn’t question it because everyone already thought they were dating.

And to be fair, if she had to date a guy, it would be Roier. He was kind and funny. He was a positive person, always full of energy but he also knew when to calm down. He was never afraid to stand up for himself or others. He had never hidden his emotions and tried to always be honest. He was great at comforting others and smarter than most people thought he was. He was passionate and loving and overall, one of the best people Tina knew. It wasn’t hard for her to pretend to love him because she already did, just not romantically.

The rules of their fake dating were very simple. They actually didn’t need to show much more affection than they already did, just sometimes they kissed in public so that people didn’t annoy them because people just loved the gossip. When people would get weird and ask why they didn’t kiss more in public, they would just say that their relationship was private. It worked most of the times.

The only real rule they actually had was that they should always run with the same story of how they got together. And obviously that they should keep it secret. Everything else was really easy because they already knew each other so well and no one ever questioned their relationship.

Their “relationship” had been going on for over a year now and they both never really wanted to stop it. That was until now, at the start of the new school year.

==========================

Since the first day of the new year, Tina knew that there were two new people in school who just moved to their city. Gossip like that travelled fast. Identical twins, a boy and a girl from Brazil. That was all she knew. Roier also didn’t know more but that didn’t mean anything. As much as she loved her best friend, he could be a bit slow sometimes. Not that he was dumb like a lot of people assumed.

Roier was very smart if he wanted to be, but it was more that he just wasn’t very observant sometimes. Too lost in his own thoughts to realize what was going on around him. When people still tried to hit on them, Roier wouldn’t even notice when a girl was flirting with him most of the time. Which is how he unintentionally broke a lot of girls’ hearts. For all Tina knew, the new kids could sit right next to Roier, and he wouldn’t even notice that they were new.

It didn’t take long for her to get to know more about the twins though because on the second day, she had Spanish class with the new girl. Tina was sitting between Foolish and Jaiden when this beautiful girl came into the room, quite literally taking her breath away as Tina choked on nothing and had to cover her mouth while coughing. Both Foolish and Jaiden looked at her with confusion and lightly patted her on the back so free her airways from whatever she was choking on.

Who could blame her though? The girl that walked through the door had beautiful blonde, almost white hair that spilled from under a brown hat over her shoulders and stopped around the middle of her chest. There was a streak of brown hair on the right side of her bangs which framed her face perfectly. Her blue eyes in combination with her light skin made her look like a doll, if it wasn’t for the fierce look on her face.

She was wearing a lot of jewelry, a few rings and necklaces and earrings. Her black wide fit pants made her legs look even longer and overall, even taller than she already was. Combined with a light blue t-shirt and a pair of black ankle boots, her whole look made Tina wonder whether she was seeing the coolest person alive or a literal angel right in front of her.

Needless to say, Tina was absolutely stunned, and it took her a while to collect herself. She knew that she was probably completely red in the face, one because she was blushing just by seeing this beautiful woman, two out of shame at her own reaction and three because she couldn’t breathe properly for a solid ten seconds. Luckily no one seemed to notice, apart from her friends next to her.

“What the hell was that?”, Foolish whisper-yelled to her.

“Nothing! Shut up!”, she whisper-yelled back at him.

“You literally just almost died because a girl walked in the classroom. What do you mean “nothing”?”, Jaiden said while actually whispering.

“I mean yeah but did you guys not see her? Obviously, I’m going to almost die”, she now also whispered as she looked at her friends, hoping for some understanding in their faces but both of them just looked at her still confused. They wouldn’t get it, Foolish liked guys and Jaiden has never actually found anyone attractive in her life.

“You guys are useless!”

Through the introductions their Spanish teacher made them do, Tina found out that the girls name was Bagi, that she was from São Paulo and had a twin brother. She also really liked to read, specifically mystery novels and thrillers. She had lived in Spain for a bit, but she told the class that she forgot a lot of her Spanish, though Tina thought her Spanish was really good, but she couldn’t really judge that. Tina also learned that Bagi had a beautiful voice but that was more of her personal opinion and not something she had told them.

She didn’t get to talk to Bagi yet but if she was being honest to herself, she also didn’t know if she could handle that. After all she still hadn’t fully recovered from seeing her for the first time, being perceived by her and actually talking to her seemed far out of her abilities at this moment.

==========================

Even though she would usually tell everything to Roier, this time she waited until the beginning of the second week of school before saying anything. Because realistically, if she were to tell Roier about every pretty girl she ever saw, she would need to talk to him about girls every day.

The only reason why she needed to talk to him that day was because for the first time, her and Bagi locked eyes in class, which was already sensational enough on its own. But then later on they had to do a Spanish exercise together because their teacher put them in groups instead of them being able to choose their own, so that they wouldn’t just hang around the people they knew. And Tina could barely look her in the eyes, basically just staring at her paper the whole time, really trying to concentrate on their conversation in Spanish.

The first thing she did at lunch break was to find Roier. When she finally found him talking to his jock friends, she just grabbed his hand and with a sweet “Sorry to interrupt but I need to borrow him for a second”, turned around and walked off while dragging her best friend behind her, who wasn’t even protesting. She could her the group of guys hollering and whistling but she just rolled her eyes and ignored it. She found the next best storage room and kindly shoved Roier inside before following herself, closing the door behind her.

“What’s going on?”, Roier asked surprisingly calm for what had just happened.

“We have a problem”, she could see Roier’s face immediately go white and his posture go tense, so she quickly shook her head. “Not that kind of problem, I’m being dramatic, everything is fine.”

Roier visibly relaxed and let out the breath he was holding. He mumbled something in Spanish which she couldn’t understand but she could guess what he was saying.

“I met the girl of the new twins, Bagi, she’s in my Spanish class”, she said while starting to pace around in the small room.

Roier raised an eyebrow at that, “And?”

“And she’s hot. And like super pretty. Literally the most beautiful person I’ve ever met. Like I don’t even know if she was actually real. And she’s smart and super cool and-“

“You have made your point. You’ve dragged me into this closet because you met a pretty girl”

“Okay now that you say it out loud, it does sound a lot more pathetic, but I was freaking out, okay?!”

“No, I get it, you were gay panicking. Happens to the best of us. But what do you want to do now?”

“I don’t know! I can’t even talk to her properly!”
She continued pacing through the room while biting at her nails.

“In what way? Can you like not get a word out? Or what’s the problem?”

“No talking itself is fine but I can’t even look at her. Because I know she’s going to look back at me."

“That’s true, people tend to look at you in a normal conversation.”

“You’re not being helpful”

“Okay okay, what about if you just have short conversations with her. Like you can start just by greeting her while looking at her. It will be over really quickly because you just need to say”, he changed the tone of his voice to imitate her “Hi Bagi and boom, you’re done”

“First of all, fuck you, I do not sound like that. But you do make a good point. Maybe that will work.”

“And I promise you, you won’t die from looking at a pretty girl while she’s looking at you. I know you might stumble over your words or blush or something but that’s okay. I don’t know Bagi but if I was her, I would think that it’s cute.”

“Thanks Ro”, she said as she hugged him. He hugged her back.

“No problem, I’m always there for you if you need advice for how to talk to hot people, I’m somewhat of a pro”

“And you ruined it”, she lightly hit him over the head.

==========================

The following days, Tina would greet Bagi every time she would see her in and outside of class. It would only be for a brief moment before she would try to run away without actually running away, really stealthy. In the beginning, Bagi looked very confused and surprised whenever it happened but after a while she started to smile back at her and greet her as well.

Roier also finally saw Bagi when he picked Tina up after Spanish class. He was waiting outside the classroom, leaning against the wall and scrolling on his phone. Tina walked up to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Hey, let’s get out of here.”

“Yeah, let’s go. Mom made tamales for us.”

Roier looked up at her and then at something behind her, he looked a bit confused before he put his phone in his pocket. He took her hand as they started walking towards the exit. She waved Foolish and Jaiden goodbye and smiled at Bagi when they walked by them. They barely made it a few steps away from the classroom when Roier leaned over to her a little and spoke in a low voice.

“Who is the girl in your class with the blonde hair and the brown streak?”

Tina looked at him in confusion. “Bagi?”

“Oh, that’s Bagi? Man, she has a mean look.”, he laughed a bit.

“What do you mean? She’s lovely!”, she protested.

“Well, she just looked at me as if I killed her entire family.”

“Maybe she just thought you were really ugly.”

He bumped into her and shoved her slightly.

“I’m kidding, you’re prince charming or whatever. I don’t know maybe she had a bad day”

Roier didn’t look very convinced, but he still nodded before they changed the topic.

==========================

It was at the end of the second week as Tina was walking down the hallway to her locker, about to wave and say hi to Bagi, when Roier came up from behind her, draping his arm around her shoulders.

“Hi babe, Hi Bagi”, Tina had to hold herself back from physically cringing at the nickname. She always hated it when they did it unironically, so did Roier but it was something couples did so it made sense. He gave Bagi a quick wave before turning back to Tina and whispering in her ear.

“I need to talk to you, walk with me.”

Tina turned her head to look at him, only to be met with his face still being really close to hers. She looked him in the eyes, trying to figure out how serious this was. The moment she saw that almost mischievous glint in his eyes, she knew that nothing serious was going on even though he had a pretty good poker face. She relaxed a bit and then whispered back.

“Your breath smells. Let’s go”

They walked by Bagi who looked at them with a small smile and waved back when Tina waved her goodbye. The two of them walked into the same storage closet from the beginning of the week. Roier took a deep breath while rubbing his face.

“So apparently being hot is a family gene or something”

“Bagi’s brother?”, a big grin formed on her face.

“Yeah, his name is Cellbit. He’s in my history class. I didn’t notice until today because the seat arrangements changed.”

“Oh, so this is about to be a similar story”

“Well, no because I can talk to hot people but my god he’s gorgeous. And he’s also super smart and his Spanish is really good. His accent is super cute and yeah no he’s beautiful.”, Roier said with a big smile on his face.

Tina grinned back at him. She had rarely seen that look on Roier’s face. The only other times she would see that look was when his team had just won a game. Compared to her, Roier did not have that many crushes on boys as she did on girls. Roier always said it was because there were no pretty guys in their year or because none of them were his type but Tina didn’t even know what his type was.

“Okay so how did it go? Since you’re a pro at talking to hot people”

“Well, I said hi, he said hi and then we just kind of started talking. I asked him how he’s been settling in and how he learned Spanish. And he asked me how long my family has been living in the city and how I started playing basketball. I think we could’ve kept on going for a while but then class started. He likes History you know? So, he actually paid attention. I tried to pay attention too, but I kept on getting distracted by how good he looked.”, Roier started rambling a bit.

“Yeah, I feel that last part. They make it so hard to concentrate, don’t they? Those damn twins”

“Those damn twins, being all hot and shit”

They both laughed a little.

“Okay but that sounds like it went well. What’s the problem then?”

“Well, I think Cellbit being this hot is a problem for humanity itself. But yeah no there is no problem, I just needed to tell you. Can’t really go up to the basketball guys and gush over how hot the new guy in my class is. Even though you also don’t really get it.”

“That’s fair. I mean you talk to Foolish, I’m sure he gets it.”

“You know I think he would but once you start talking to him about guys, he will start talking about Vegetta and not stop for the next hour. And you know Vegetta is like an older brother to me, so it just feels very weird.”

Tina nodded. “Yeah, okay makes sense. But you know what? Even though I don’t get the liking a guy bit, we are kind of in the same boat right now.”

“Yep, we are both gay disasters”

==========================

It took Tina another few days until she finally managed to have a conversation with Bagi. During that she did keep on greeting her every time they saw each other. It became the highlight of her day, seeing Bagi, looking her in the eyes and waving at her as she had the brightest smile on her face and waved back at her. Tina absolutely loved the way she pronounced her name when saying “Hi Tina”. Her accent was super cute, and she had to hold herself back from squealing sometimes.

While they hadn’t managed to talk more than two words until now, Roier was talking a lot with Cellbit. Tina had finally met him when Roier introduced the two of them on lunch break. He didn’t seem to be very pleased to meet Tina but at least he tried to be polite and shook her hand with a forced smile. He was very pretty, she couldn’t deny that. The similarities between him and Bagi were very obvious, but Tina personally thought that Bagi was way nicer and cuter but she was also not a boy so that could be it.

Their first full conversation happened on Wednesday of the third week of school when after school activities started. In the first two weeks there were no clubs or stuff like that so that the new students could choose a club, or the older students could change the club they were in the previous year. Just like every year, Tina was in cheerleading again. It was the only sport she actually enjoyed doing and she was one of the best flyers on their team.

Tina just left the gym after the first practice of the year when she saw Bagi sitting on floor in the hallway all by herself. It was already 4pm so Tina furrowed her eyebrows in concern as she walked up to the other girl.

She was sitting on the floor on top of her cardigan, probably because the tiles tend to be quite cold and uncomfortable, while leaning on the lockers behind her. A book was laying in her cross-legged lap, and she had in-ear headphones in. Her fingers were tapping the side of the book to the beat of whatever music she was listening to. As Tina approached Bagi looked up at her from her book and pulled out her headphones.

“Hi Bagi, everything alright?”, Tina completely forgot to get nervous in all of her concern as to why Bagi would still sit here at 4pm all by herself.

“Hi Tina! Yeah, I’m okay, I’m just waiting for a friend.”, Tina relaxed a bit. She didn’t even know why she got so worried in the first place.

“Can I keep you company?”

“Oh yeah I would love that”, Bagi smiled at her as she sat down next to her. Suddenly the nervousness hit her again as their knees touched and she looked down at her hands in embarrassment. There was a bit of silence before Bagi broke it.

“And what were you doing here? At this time?”

Tina decided to be brave because she knew that Roier would make fun of her if she failed to have a normal conversation again without looking at Bagi. So, she looked at the girl next to her and smiled a little.

“I just had cheer- cheerleading practice. Were you just sitting here the whole time?”, she was surprised by how stable her voice sounded and how she barely stumbled over her own words.

Bagi shook her head. “Not the whole time, I did go to the book club meeting thing but apparently it doesn’t last as long as most other club meetings, so I’ve been sitting here for like an hour maybe”

Tina nodded slightly and then decided to really take a leap and be brave. “I mean if you want to, you can come and watch the practice next time.”

Bagi grinned at her with a teasing tone in her voice.

“If you want me to and I’m allowed in there, sure I’ll come and watch you”

Tina blushed slightly at those words and looked away for a second, hoping that Bagi didn’t notice before she cleared her throat and continued the conversation.

“So, you’re waiting on a friend?”

“Yeah, one of the other Brazilians, Pac. He’s in the technology club. Normally him and his best friend go there together but he’s sick today so he asked me to wait for him so we could take the bus together.”

“That’s really nice of you then. Good to hear that you’ve found your people so quickly."

“I’m surprised too, usually it has always just been me and my brother. It’s good to meet people from home.”

Tina nodded in agreement. “Yeah, it’s like that for me too when I meet people from Korea. It always feels a little like visiting home.”

“Oh, you’re also not from here? I feel like almost everyone moved to the city.”

“Yeah, the city is famous for the number of foreigners living here. But technically I am from here, I was born in the city shortly after my parents moved here. We visit Korea a lot though, so it feels like home too.”

“I see”, a few moments of silence followed. “Hey, can I ask you something random? Just out of curiosity.”

“Yeah sure”

“How did you and Roier meet? You seem to know each other for a while.”

She hoped that her disappointment wasn’t showing that much and that she could keep up her poker face because she knew exactly where this was going. As much as she loved Roier, she’d rather talk about anything else than her “boyfriend” with the girl she liked.

“We do. His family moved here when we were little, and we both went to the same pre-school. We have been more or less inseparable since then.”

“Oh, wow that’s really cool. And when did you start dating?”

We are not dating is what she wanted to say.

“When we were 16. But I think I always knew that we would end up together.”, she forced herself to laugh a little. Oh, how she wished that she could just tell Bagi the whole truth.

Maybe she was imagining things, but she could swear that she saw Bagi look a bit disappointed after hearing Tina’s answer. But she was probably just seeing things.

“But let’s stop talking about him. I want to know more about you. What are you reading right now?”, Tina quickly changed the topic, and in that moment, she knew that Roier would be so proud of her not giving into the awkwardness and taking the lead in the conversation. It was actually quite easy to talk to Bagi after getting over the initial awkwardness.

They continued talking for a bit about school and their personal interests until Pac finally showed up and Bagi and him had to leave. They waved each other goodbye, and Tina made her way home. It took her a few minutes until she finally realized what had just happened and the biggest smile formed on her face.

Chapter Text

New year, new challenge, is what Roier told himself when he saw Cellbit for the first time. Because talking to his beautiful guy, trying not to fall in love with him and also still pretend like he was straight, was definitely going to be a challenge. So was trying to focus on class while sitting next to Cellbit. Not because he was particularly distracting him on purpose by talking to him, no he was distracting enough with his whole presence.

The way his hair framed his face in such a perfect way that he looked straight out of a painting. The way he would tuck a stray hair strand behind his ears. His icy blue eyes, which would light up whenever he smiled. The way he would furrow his eyebrows in concentration. His laugh whenever Roier made a dumb joke. Cellbit was beauty itself in Roier’s eyes.

In the beginning, this made it even harder to focus on the class than before he was sat next to Cellbit. But at least he wasn’t being disturbing the rest of the class anymore, so the teacher just let him sit next to Cellbit. And while he mostly didn’t pay attention to his teacher, he did still learn stuff through his seatmate. Because even though Cellbit’s Spanish was really good, and also really cute in Roier’s opinion, there were some words he just didn’t know.

At least once every class, Cellbit would lean over to ask him about what a word meant. In the beginning, Roier was really struggling to answer. Most of the words Cellbit was asking about were either words that Roier didn’t know the English translation for, let alone the Portuguese or they were words that required context. Which meant for Roier that he had to read the text they were reading so he would understand the context. And for the words he had no direct translation for, he had to find an explanation for it.

One time when Roier was trying to find an explanation for a word, Cellbit tried to tell him that it was fine and that he could just ask the teacher or google it later on, but Roier refused.
“No, I can do this. I’m going to be your personal translator.”
Cellbit had put up his hands in a defensive act and let him do his thing while laughing at him in amusement. And while it took him a bit to find the proper explanation, he did manage to help Cellbit figure out the word at some point.

From that day on, Roier made it his mission to be able to answer all of Cellbit’s questions the best way he could. He forced himself to actually read the texts in class and pay attention, even though it was hard with Cellbit next to him. This resulted in him actually being able to answer a few of the questions the teacher asked, surprising not only him but also Cellbit and his teacher.

Of course, he wasn’t going to get everything right immediately just because he started to actually to pay attention. But the things he didn’t know, Cellbit knew, making them a great team. Cellbit loved the subject and knew a lot about world history. Whenever Roier got something wrong on his exercises, Cellbit would kindly correct him and explain the correct answer to him.

In those few weeks, they talked a lot about their lives and themselves whenever they could. From day one Roier knew that they had good chemistry, but they actually got along even better than he expected. Talking to Cellbit felt like talking to someone he’d known for years, not just a few weeks. If it wasn’t for class, Roier could see them talk for ages. Cellbit would tell him about living in America and Spain and Roier would talk to him about what he remembered of Mexico. They could talk about anything and everything, it was wonderful.

The same thing seemed to be happening to Tina and Bagi but a bit slower. After their initial first conversation, they would chat more and more and Bagi would actually come to Tina’s cheerleading practice. Tina told him that they would also practice Spanish a little and that they have talked about studying together.

“She’s actually so smart and so good at everything. And pretty as well. Sometimes it actually makes me mad that someone can be so perfect.”

“Yeah, tell me about it.”

Bagi still didn’t seem to like Roier very much. She always looked at him as if he was the devil himself whenever she saw him, especially when he was with Tina. To be honest, Roier thought that she might be jealous of him. He could be imagining things but the look she gave him when him and Tina kissed once in the hallway, that was a murderous look. Not that he would tell Tina that, at least for now. She was supposed to be the smart one between them. She could figure that out herself.

••••••••••••••

On week five, their history teacher gave them their assignments that they had to work on in groups of 2 or more people. Normally Roier would immediately run to Mariana but the second the teacher finished her announcement, he looked over to Cellbit who was already looking at him. They both grinned and nodded, deal sealed.

When it came to the selection of their topic, Roier wasn’t really paying much attention, giving Cellbit full freedom of choice. He didn’t care what they would work on as long as Cellbit was happy with the topic. They had to come up to the front and tell the teacher which topic they wanted, if their chosen one was gone already, they had to choose another one.

Cellbit seemed pretty satisfied when he came back to their tables, he got the topic he wanted. They agreed to meet on Wednesday after school to work on their project. Cellbit immediately offered his place and Roier gladly accepted.

The days leading up to said Wednesday, Roier was really excited and kind of nervous. For the first time it was just going to be him and Cellbit with nothing interrupting their conversations. Not even Bagi or Cellbit’s parents were going to be there as Bagi had book club on Wednesday and their parents were at work. So, it would just be them. He had immediately told Tina about it when he found out and she was just as ecstatic as he was.

“Imagine having time to actually talk to the person you like and not be interrupted by the teacher.”

“I’m going to be able to talk to him for hours with no interruptions.”

“Honestly that still sounds like a nightmare to me. Sometimes the teachers do save me from embarrassing myself.”

“Well, I already told you, I’m great at talking to hot people.”

“Sure, I can just pretend like you didn’t almost start drooling when Cellbit told you that he likes to play chess. I saw that shit.”

“Fuck off, that’s a very normal response.”

“Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

••••••••••••••

On the day itself, Roier was having a hard time staying focused or sitting still in class with the amount of excitement in his body. Fortunately, no one seemed to question that as Roier usually was pretty energetic and couldn’t stay still for long. When the last class was finally over, he was waiting outside for Cellbit while talking to some of his friends.

After a few minutes of waiting, Tina came over to him. She still had cheerleading class but wanted to see him before he left since they hadn’t seen each other all day. She hugged him from the side.

“Hey asshole”

“Hi dumbass”, they smiled at each other, and he pressed a kiss on her forehead.

“I’m so tired dude, I think I’m going to die”, she kept her arms wrapped around Roier’s waist and rested her head on his shoulder.

“Rest in peace”, he answered dryly as he pat her head and kept on looking around for Cellbit.

Suddenly a motorbike pulled up in the parking lot in front of the schools entrance. It was a white and purple one with some gold accents. Roier didn’t know shit about motorbikes, so he didn’t know what kind it was, but he immediately recognized it as his cousins. The man on the motorbike climbed off and pulled off his helmet, which matched the colors of his bike, revealing a mop of black messy hair and the face of Roier’s cousin Vegetta. Before he could even attempt on taking a step towards his cousin, a loud squeal echoed through the parking lot.

“Mi amor!”, Foolish started booking it towards his boyfriend and almost tackled him to the ground if it wasn’t for Vegetta somehow balancing the two of them. He laughed loudly while still holding his lover highly. The moment Foolish’s legs touched the ground again, they shared a very intense kiss, making Roier look away as he didn’t need to see his cousin make out with one of his best friends.

“How long has it been since they’ve seen each other?”, Tina asked him, still pressed against his side but with her eyes closed now.

“A few months for sure. Vegetta moved out in May, I think.”

“He must have missed him a ton. I’m surprised they are still together. Most people can’t do long distance.”

“Me too but to be fair, they have been together for what like 4 years? A long time for sure.”

At some point Foolish and Vegetta seemed to have separated since they were walking over to them. Vegetta was greeting Roier in Spanish and the two of them started talking a little between the two of them, Tina practically falling asleep against Roier and Foolish bouncing with energy while holding Vegetta’s hand. Their conversation was interrupted when Cellbit finally emerged from the front doors and spotted Roier immediately.

He smiled and waved him over. Cellbit smiled at him too, but the smile quickly faded for some reason as he came closer, his gaze fixated on Tina at his side. Roier knew that Cellbit didn’t really like Tina for some reason. He never said anything out loud, but he always looked at her with a look that Roier couldn’t really identify but it wasn’t good.

“Hey Cellbo, this is my cousin Vegetta, Foolish’s boyfriend.”, he had picked up on the nickname after hearing the other Brazilians use it and Cellbit didn’t seem to mind.
The two shook hands and greeted each other, engaging in small talk for a bit until Foolish had enough and pulled Vegetta away to his motorcycle. The rest of them said goodbye and now it was only Roier, Tina and Cellbit.

“Do you want to go? The bus is leaving in 15 minutes.”, Cellbit looked at Roier, the tone in his voice suddenly very urgent. Roier looked at him with slight confusion before nodding. He seemed like he wanted to leave as quickly as possible even though the walk towards the bus station really wasn’t that long.

“Hey babe, I gotta go and you have to get back inside.”, he started shaking Tina slightly as she still had her eyes closed.

Tina grumbled in protest before she opened her eyes to look at him with a frown. After pinching him in the side, she let him go. “Okay but don’t forget to text me”

“I would never but you better don’t forget to tell me how it went.”

They exchanged a knowing smile and a small kiss before saying their goodbyes. Tina waved Cellbit goodbye as well but there was only a short grumbled response. Roier turned around to Cellbit, who had watched all of that still with a frown on his face. If Roier didn’t know any better, he’d almost think that Cellbit was jealous but that couldn’t be true.

“Let’s go then?”

“Yep”, Cellbit answered with the emphasis on the ‘p’ sound and walked towards the bus station. Roier could sense some weird tension coming from Cellbit, but he decided to not address it and instead just started talking about his last lessons. Luckily the tension quickly faded, and they went back to their usual quick back and forth conversations about everything and anything.

••••••••••••••

On their way to Cellbit’s house, they both agreed to just order take out and try to get started on their project as soon as possible, even though they both knew that they were lucky if they got any kind of work done.

Cellbit opened the door to the house him and his family lived in. It was a pretty average two-story house with a small backyard, not anything spectacular just the kind of house you would expect from a middle-class family living in their city. The houses in the neighborhood looked pretty much the same. The inside was also exactly what you would expect, modern furniture that was mostly simplistic but overall, more on the cozy side, with warm tones, lots of pictures and plants.

Walking into Cellbit’s room was what surprised Roier the most about the house. He didn’t know what he expected but it certainly wasn’t what he was seeing. Cellbit’s room was lifeless and almost empty. There was a grey twin size bed against the wall furthest from the door. The wall with two windows had a brown desk, a chair and a computer. The desk was empty apart from a few papers that Roier could identify as schoolwork. On the other side there was a beige closet and a black cabinet. The last wall that was opposite of the bed had a few carton boxes stacked on top of each other.

The walls were painted white, but nothing was on them. No posters, no pictures, no decorations, no plants. Not even blinds or a carpet. Even the light bulb hanging from the ceiling was completely exposed with no lampshade. To summarize it, Cellbit’s room was pretty sad and very empty and not like Cellbit at all, in Roier’s opinion.

“Wow… that’s not… what I expected.”

“Yeah, it’s not very pretty but I don’t see the point of getting out my stuff from the moving boxes. I’m going to have to put everything back soon anyways.”, Cellbit sat down on his bed, waving Roier over to do the same, which he promptly did.

“Well, that sounds, uhm…well, depressing.”

Cellbit had told Roier about how much his family had been moving in the past 10 years and in the beginning Roier thought it sounded really cool. Being able to see so many parts of the world at such a young age seems pretty sick. But slowly he realized that in reality it really wasn’t cool at all. Not feeling like having a true home anywhere and always being ready to lose any connections you’ve made, sounds a lot less cool.

“I know. But if it makes you feel better, I’ve never wanted to call a place my home as much as this city, in the past 10 years. I haven’t felt the feeling of being home in a while before moving here”, Cellbit looked him directly in the eyes while smiling softly. Roier felt himself getting nervous under his warm gaze and looked to the side, clearing his throat.

“That’s good to hear. I would be sad if you said that you hate it here.”

“Nah I’ve experienced much worse schools and cities. This school is pretty chill in comparison.”

“Really? Worse in what way? I mean you don’t have to tell me, I’m just curious.”

“Well, me and Bagi got bullied a lot. For multiple reasons, being new, being gay and lesbian, for looking and being very emo when we were like 14.”, Cellbit laughed a little. “Things like that”

Roier tried his best to hide his surprise when Cellbit so casually said that he was gay. Again, he didn’t know what he expected. To be honest he hadn’t really thought about the possibility of Cellbit not being straight. For some reason he just assumed that whatever he’s been feeling over the past few weeks towards the pretty Brazilian, was never going to be reciprocated. Not that Cellbit being gay meant that he'd maybe like him too, but this changed everything for Roier.

“God, that sounds awful. But yeah, being queer is not that big of a deal at our school. I swear there are barely any straight people.”, Roier laughed.

“Yeah, you and Tina really are the minority”

Hearing those words felt like someone had just smacked Roier in the face. Like someone had pulled him back into reality. Oh yeah, Cellbit and everyone else still thought he was straight and dating his best friend. Cellbit being gay made no difference to his current situation of being in the closet with no intention of coming out anytime soon. But at the same time, it did change something in Roier. He suddenly felt the need to do something, anything to show Cellbit that he liked him. But he knew that he couldn’t, not yet at least.

He definitely needed to talk to Tina.

“Huh I guess we really are”, Roier forced a grin on his face. He couldn’t really read the look on Cellbit’s face but for some reason he also didn’t look too happy about that fact. He wasn’t looking at Roier anymore and instead looking at the floor with his eyebrows furrowed. There were a few moments of silence.

“Did you know that Pac thinks you’re gay?”, Cellbit turned back to him with a slight grin on his face.

Roier eyes widened in shock, and he almost choked on his own breath, sending him into a coughing fit. Cellbit lightly patted his back in an attempt to help him breathe again. After a few moments, he calmed down and could breathe properly again.

“What??”, he finally spat out, looking at Cellbit in bewilderment. “Why?”

Cellbit shrugged with a small amused smile on his lips.

“Don’t ask me. I also don’t get it but he’s very convinced that you’re not straight for some reason.”

“I have a girlfriend? What else does he want from me?”, Roier laughed in nervous confusion. How did Pac know? There was no way of him finding out about it, Roier knew that he could trust his and Tina’s friends, they wouldn’t just go around telling people. Maybe he has overheard a conversation or something. But that seemed impossible too. Him and Tina made sure to always talk in private about these kinds of things, so did their friends.

“I have no clue man.”

The two of them continued talking back and forth about different topics, eating in between and then continuing to talk. They were so focused on their conversation that they didn’t realize hours went by until Bagi came home from school which meant that Roier had to leave and go home. In the end they didn’t get any work done, which was fine because they still had a few weeks left until they had to be done. It also meant that they had to meet up again and Roier was definitely not going to complain about that.

••••••••••••••

The first thing Roier did when he got home was messaging Tina, telling her that they needed to talk after school the next day. She agreed without asking what it was about, it was pretty obvious, and they both knew that this talk was going to happen sooner or later.

The next day after school, the two of them went to Roier’s house as his parents were at work still and they had some privacy. They heated up some leftovers and sat down on Roier’s bed in silence for a while before Roier started talking.

“You know what this is about so let’s just get it over with. We have to break up.”

Tina nodded. “Yeah, we do. But please tell me what happened yesterday that made you do this so quickly? I mean we knew that this was coming but did something happen?”

Roier sighed, massaging his temples. “Cellbit told me that he’s gay and Bagi’s lesbian.”, he paused to watch Tina’s reaction.

She seemed just as surprised as Roier was and seemed to go through a bunch of emotions in the span of a few seconds. From surprise to happiness to then the realization of what that meant and then coming to the same conclusion as Roier.

“Yeah, you’re right, we do have to break up, right now.”

“Great, how do you want to do this? Because I’m not going to avoid you in school or something. And I don’t want a big dramatic break up fight.”

“I mean honestly, I feel like if we just don’t act like a couple anymore, that should do it right? Like someone is going to ask us about it eventually and then it will spread in no time.”, Tina suggested.

“We should tell our parents first though. My mom will be upset if she finds out again because the neighbors told her.”, he suggested.

“Okay so we tell our parents today and then tomorrow we just stop the couples act until people pick up on it?”

“Oh the second the gossip girlies find out, everyone will know.”, the two of them high-fived in satisfaction.

The gossip girls, as everyone would call them affectionately, consisted of Maxo, Baghera and Badboyhalo, though some believed that both Pac and Fit were honorary members as they also loved to gossip. The three of them would hang out a lot and were known to know everything about everyone. Them finding out about the breakup would make the whole thing spread even faster.

“It’s going to be so weird not having to pretend.”, Tina pulled her knees towards her chest and rested her head on them.

“Yeah, and there’s definitely going to be lots of rumors. But we expected that, didn’t we?”

“Oh, for sure. I bet I’m going to be the one that cheated on you.”, she laughed sadly, he joined her in her laughter before they both fell quiet.

“Honestly, I’m scared Roier.”, Tina broke the silence after s few seconds.

“Me too Tina. But this is for the better. I don’t know much longer I can pretend to be straight while sitting next to Cellbit.”

“I don’t know how Bagi has not noticed that I still gay panic daily when talking to her. I feel like I’m super obvious.”

Roier laid down and put his head in Tina’s lap, looking up at her. “I feel like I’m super obvious too. I literally almost died when he told me that Pac thinks I’m not straight."

Tina had started playing with his hair and then stopped abruptly. “What? How did he know?”

“That’s what I’m saying! I don’t know. Cellbit also couldn’t tell me.”

“He couldn’t have possibly overheard anything. Does he have like a seventh sense for gayness?”

“Maybe? You know what, I wouldn’t be surprised. That seems like a Pac thing.”, the two of them laughed.

“He’s going to feel so good when we eventually do come out.”, Roier said while still laughing.

“It feels weird thinking about actually doing it. I think for a while I thought we would just never ever come out and always pretend like we are a straight couple.”, Tina replied after calming down.

“Me too, it’s the easy path for sure. But I don’t think I want to take the easy way anymore.”

“Shut up, being all poetic doesn’t suit you.”

••••••••••••••

When Roier’s parents came home a few hours later, the two of them took the courage and told them about their decision. They would still remain friends because they still loved each other but they just realized that they were better friends than partners. While they seemed to be a bit disappointed and definitely shocked, they took it really well.

Same couldn’t have been said about Tina’s parents who were quite upset at Roier when Tina told them about the breakup. They blamed him for not being a good boyfriend and accused him of breaking their daughters heart. She did tell them that it was a mutual decision which calmed them down a little bit but they were still convinced that everything was Roier’s fault.

The next day the two of them came into school not holding hands like usually but still walking together and chatting. Roier didn’t bring Tina to her class, and they didn’t kiss goodbye before the first class started. Roier could feel people looking at them weirdly and whispering behind their backs, but it took until second period before someone came to talk to Roier.

It was Badboyhalo. His black hoodie covered most of his face, the only thing really visible were his bright blue, almost white eyes behind a frame of glasses. To be honest, Badboyhalo would look quite scary if it wasn’t for his lack of height and scrawniness.

“Hey Roier, do you have time real quick?”

Roier grinned, already knowing where this was going. “Yes, I do, what’s up Bad?”

“Did you and Tina break up?”, Bad could sometimes be quite direct but that was exactly what Roier needed right now.

“Yes, we did.”

He watched as Bad’s eyes widened behind his glasses but he quickly composed himself again.

“Wow okay, why?”

“We are better off as friends.”, he paused for a second. “and I like someone else”

“Oh so no cheating? And you still want to be friends? Wait who do you like?”, he could see Bad practically light up at the possibility of more gossip.

“No cheating and yes Tina is my best friend.”

“Okay but who do you like?”

Roier grinned at him mischievously before walking away without saying a word. He could hear Bad grumble in frustration.

By the end of lunch break, everyone was talking about the breakup. Multiple people had come up to both him and Tina to not only ask if it was true, but also a bunch of other questions. Surprisingly, most people accepted that they just wanted to be friends, some people were a bit too happy about it.

You were never good enough for her anyways or
I always knew that you were a terrible girlfriend or
Wait now I have a chance with her

and a bunch of other things were said in response. They both knew that this would happen though so there were no surprises. It was mostly just a bit annoying.

What surprised him was that Cellbit also came up to him after P.E. class in the changing room. Everyone else had already left so it was just the two of them. Today Cellbit was even more distracting than usually as he decided to pull some of his hair back in a small ponytail. During the class a few pieces of hair loosened and just really made him look a different kind of gorgeous that Roier didn’t even know was possible.

“Hi”, Cellbit sat on the bench opposite of Roier as he was tying his shoelaces.

“Hey”

“I heard about you and Tina breaking up.”

Roier smiled a little and looked at him.

“Yeah? Who told you?”

“Pac.”, he almost sounded guilty, as if he’d done something criminal.

Roier nodded. Of course Badboyhalo would immediately tell the other gossip girls about the information he had just acquired. And Pac was maybe not as bad as the gossip girls when it came to finding out and spreading information but him and Tina breaking up was a big sensation apparently, so it made sense that he’d find out and spread the news so quickly.

“Makes sense”

“So, it’s true? You two broke up?”

“Yep”, he put his foot back down and looked at Cellbit to see his reaction. His face was hard to read. Roier couldn’t tell if he was happy, sad or neutral about hearing that.

“Can I ask why? Well Pac told me, but I would like to hear it from you.”

“We are better off as friends. I mean we were best friends before we started dating in the first place.”

Cellbit nodded, maybe in agreement or in acknowledgment.

“That’s what Pac said too.”, Roier could tell that there was something he still wanted to say. Cellbit hesitated a bit before asking the next question.

“He also said something else though. Like another reason.”

“Tell me”, Roier encouraged him to continue.

“He said you liked someone else.”, another pause “Is that true?”

On the inside, Roier celebrated in satisfaction. Trusting in Badboyhalo’s big mouth could be a blessing. He had to hold himself back from beaming at Cellbit like a dumbass and instead just opted for a small smile, looking in Cellbit’s eyes before answering.

“Yes”

Chapter Text

New school, new people who end up messing with your heart. Bagi supposed that is what was happening right now, not only to her but also to her brother. Now Bagi isn’t exactly new to being in love with someone. She had dated a few girls in the past few years but none of them made her feel like Tina did when she was looking at her.

Tina was like a fairy. Gorgeous to an unreal degree that made you wonder whether you’re still asleep or not, with an enchanting smile and the cutest laugh Bagi has ever heard. The soft waves of her hair falling over her shoulders in a way that was messy but still seemed so perfectly planned. Bagi loved to see Tina blushing because it made her look even more warm. Tina was just a warm person in general. The way she would look at Bagi reminded her of a warm blanket sometimes. And the blush also complimented the color of her lips which really made Bagi want to kiss her but that’s beside the point.

When Bagi first saw Tina, she almost died of cuteness aggression but all of that went away when she saw Tina in cheerleading. She would forever thank her parents and who ever manipulated fate in the way that her family moved to this exact city so that Bagi could see Tina practice cheerleading. She has also never been more thankful for Baghera who had been there when Bagi came in for the first time to watch. Baghera coincidentally sat in front of her in such a way that Bagi could hide herself and hold back her screams.

Not only did Tina look super hot and gorgeous in her cheerleading clothes, but she also looked super hot and gorgeous while doing all the cool cheerleading tricks that Bagi simply didn’t understand how they were humanly possible. Baghera told her that Tina was the best flyer on the team, whatever that meant. Bagi knew nothing about cheerleading, but it was quite obvious that Tina was the best on her team. She’d nail ever single trick effortlessly and always look perfect while doing so.

After watching for the first time Bagi’s perception of Tina changed. She was still like a fairy but also extremely cool and fearless in Bagi’s opinion. Additionally, Tina was super smart, excelling in every subject and also being generally well educated. Not that that mattered to Bagi, Tina was already the most perfect girl she’s ever met but it made conversations with her very interesting.

They could talk for hours about things that others would find boring, like books. Since they had their first conversation in the hallway, they would both regularly look for the other to talk about the new chapter they were reading or about other books that they had already read. They had a similar taste in books, but Bagi was more interested in detective novels while Tina was very into fantasy and sci-fi.

One time Tina had brought her one of the books that she really liked to school for Bagi to read it. She’d put little notes in the book, commenting on things she liked or disliked. Or just things she thought were interesting. Bagi did the same thing with one of her favorite books and so they kept on exchanging books. Through this Bagi learned a lot about the person Tina was. She was very interested in nature and biology. She loved animals and didn’t really like cliché romance stuff in books but wasn’t really against it in real life. She also preferred baking over cooking because could baked goods for longer than a meal, usually. And also because she just liked sweets.

================

The rumors about Tina and Roier’s break up reached Bagi and Cellbit at the same time when Pac told them in Portuguese class. Both of them were just as surprised as everyone else, though Cellbit was better at hiding his excitement than Bagi was. She couldn’t stop the smile appearing on her face as the blonde told them. Some people were apparently already “calling dibs” on either one of the two, which she thought was particularly disgusting.

“They’re treating them like trophies or something. Did they forget that they are humans?”

“It was like that before they started dating too. I guess that comes with being popular and conventionally attractive.”, Pac answered while putting his hair into a small ponytail.

“That’s so disgusting.”, Cellbit mumbled.

“It is. I mean they have no chance anyways because apparently Roier already likes someone else. I don’t know about Tina though.”

“Oh really?”, Cellbit said in a calm tone, trying his best to not sound too disappointed about it. To his credit, he was really good at hiding his emotions, but Bagi could still tell that he wasn’t happy with that information, she would be too.

After Pac confirmed it again and promptly had to leave to another class, Cellbit looked at Bagi with disappointment. She tried to encourage him silently, putting her hand on his shoulder and then whispered.

“Don’t give up yet. Maybe ask him first, who knows if Pac’s sources are reliable. And he could like you.”

Cellbit’s look changed from disappointment to skepticism and he rose an eyebrow.

“Oh, come on don’t look at me like that. It’s not impossible, just because you think that Roier is straight, doesn’t mean it’s true. He could still be bi.”

Cellbit sighed in defeat and then nodded. “Okay I will ask him. But only if you do the same with Tina. Because she could also be bi.”

Bagi hesitated for a second before nodding and holding out her hand. Cellbit took her hand, and they shook on their agreement. “Deal”

================

The girls P.E class was at the same time that the boys had theirs. Just like Cellbit, Bagi tried to talk to Tina after the P.E class was over, and everyone had already left. But Tina finished changing quicker than the rest, so she left the room as one of the first people. Fortunately, Bagi was also already done so she followed her quickly.

“Wait, Tina!”

Tina stopped abruptly and turned around to look at Bagi, immediately a smile appeared on her face. She had her hair in a bun with a few stray pieces framing her face. As she turned around one of the hair strands got stuck at the corner of her mouth, but Tina quickly brushed the strand behind her ear. Bagi could only think of how endearing she was.

“Hey Bagi! What’s going on? Are you okay?”

“Yes, I’m fine, I just wanted to ask you something. Come on let’s sit down here.”, Bagi took Tina’s hand and dragged her to a bench in the hallway, a bit away from where the other students would normally be. Tina’s hand was soft and warm and somehow fit perfectly in Bagi’s hand, she did her best not to freak out over that.

They both sat down, and she let go of her hand. Bagi crossed her legs and turned so that she was facing Tina.

“So, I heard about you and Roier breaking up.”, she just went right for it.

Bagi could almost see the corners of her mouth curl into a slight smile. Tina was sitting with her kegs pulled close to her chest, leaning against the wall. “You did?”

“Yeah, Pac told us. So, it’s true?”

“Of course he did. Yes, it is.”, she rested her chin on top of her arms which were crossed on top of her knees.

“Can I ask why you broke up? If you don’t mind.”

“I don’t mind. We broke up because we are better off as friends.”

Bagi nodded, that’s what Pac had told her and Cellbit as well. Which meant so far, his sources seemed to be correct, she wondered if the other part about Roier was correct as well. Before Bagi could answer, Tina interrupted her.

“And because I like someone else.”

Bagi froze for a second, looking at Tina with wide eyes. Tina was looking at her for a few seconds before she turned away, but Bagi could clearly see the blush on her cheeks.

“Oh, okay.”, was all that Bagi could get out. She could hit herself for that stupid response and was about to start awkwardly rambling when their conversation was suddenly interrupted, conveniently saving her from a possible really uncomfortable conversation.

“Bagi! Sorry to interrupt but I need you like right now!”, Cellbit came running down the hallway, grabbing Bagi by her wrist and dragging her along without waiting for an answer. She barely managed to wave Tina goodbye before they were already outside. She didn’t even see Tina wave back because of how quickly Cellbit was going. Her brother dragged her to the side of the building to where people couldn’t see them.

“What the hell?”, she exclaimed out of breath.

“Shut up, I don’t care, I have important news.”, Cellbit said while trying to catch his breath.

“Yeah, well me too!”

“Wait, I want to go first.”, Cellbit said.

“Whatever, go on.”

“Roier does like someone else. And I flirted with him, I think?”

“Wait, wait. slow down. What happened exactly?”

Cellbit took a deep breath before continuing.

“So I asked him about the rumors and he confirmed everything that Pac said. And when he said that he liked someone else, he looked me in the eyes and I don’t know, something about the look in his eyes was just different? I don’t know, I can’t describe it. And so I said, oh do you now? and he smiled at me and said yes I do, they are very lovely and then I said Well that’s good to know, lucky them and then I panicked and left.”

“Wow I am so proud of you, you flirted with a handsome guy.”

“Maybe you were right, maybe he does like me?”

Bagi grinned in triumph before she remembered her own version of what had just happened.

“Well, I was less lucky. Tina told me the same thing but when she said that she liked someone else, I kind of just stared at her and went Oh okay, like a dumbass. And then you came.”

“Oh, come on, that’s not too bad. You just gay panicked earlier than I did. I’m sure she still thinks you’re cool.”

“I don’t know, that wasn’t exactly a “cool” move.”

“If she likes you, she will understand your gay panic”

“Yeah, but we don’t know if she likes me Cellbit.”

“Yet! We don’t know yet. Just give it some time.”

Bagi knew that Cellbit was right, but she still rolled her eyes. It’s weird how in the morning she was the one who was hopeful about their crushes possibly having feelings for them and now it was Cellbit telling her not to give up.

“That’s easy for you to say though. Your crush just insinuated that he likes you.”

“God, he kind of did, didn’t he?”, Cellbit looked in the distance with that dreamy whipped look on his eyes that made her want to punch him in the face.

“You know if I wasn’t actually excited for you, I’d slap that dumb look off your face.”

“Try me.”, Cellbit said before turning around and running away toward the bus station, Bagi following closely.

================

The whole break up didn’t escalate into the drama that everyone thought it would, mostly because over the weekend more drama developed. For one, Slimecicle, a loud, nerdy American student and Mariana, who was part of Roier’s friend group and equally as loud as both Slimecicle and Roier, were back together again. They had some kind of an on and off relationship and but this time it was apparently the last time, this time they were going to stay together. Pac said that their relationship was really toxic so he didn’t believe that it would work for long.

“They have announced the “last time” at least three times by now. It’s never the last time.”

Also, in a shocking turn of events, Foolish and Vegetta broke up too. After their beautiful reunion on Wednesday, they had a talk about their future together and Vegetta confessed that he had a crush on someone in his university class. He hadn’t cheated on his boyfriend, but he admitted to wanting to do so with this girl. And while he loved Foolish, he really wanted to go after said girl, so they broke up. At least that’s what Pac told them Monday morning and judging by the look on Foolish’s face, the breakup part was definitely real.

================

Bagi expected for the next time she’d see Tina, to be super awkward but fortunately Tina seemed to have other plans. She came over to her moment they locked eyes on Monday in Spanish class. One of her hands was behind her back while the other one brushed a stray hairpiece out of her face.

Today she was wearing a pastel purple overall over a white long-sleeved shirt and light purple thigh highs and a pair of purple converse. Again, Bagi couldn’t stop thinking about a fairy when she saw Tina, especially with the light make up she had put on today which complemented her eyes.

“Hey Bagi!”

“Hi Tina! Everything okay?”

“Yes! Everything is perfect.”, she said a bit too loud and immediately put her hand on top of her mouth. She seemed to be a bit nervous. “Sorry!”, Bagi thought she was adorable.

“It’s fine, glad to hear that. I hope no one is giving you any trouble because of Friday?”

“No!”, she exclaimed loudly again before speaking quieter again. “No everything is good.”

Bagi smiled at her, about to ask why she had come over when Tina revealed her hand from behind her back. She was holding another book in her hand.

“Here this is for you. I think you’re going to like it.”

Bagi took the book in her hands and immediately recognized it as a lesbian love story that she had read a few years ago. The setting was a thriller murder scenario, but it was beautifully written. It was one of Bagi’s favorite books. She could see a bunch of notations and pieces of paper and sticky notes sticking out from between the pages.

“I’ve read this one, it’s one of my favorites.”

“Really? Mine too!”

The two exchanged a meaningful look for a few seconds before Bagi cleared her throat. Was that Tina’s way of telling her that she liked girls too? Or was she just trying to show her support for Bagi herself being a lesbian? After their last conversation, the first one made more sense but she still wasn’t a 100% sure.

“Thank you! I will read it again with your notes. And I will bring you mine so you can read it with my notes.”

“Sounds perfect.”, Tina smiled at her and was about to walk away when Bagi realized the opportunity that was just given to her on a silver platter.

“Wait!”, Tina turned around and looked at her curiously.

“Actually, do you want to come over to my place? I can give you the book there and we can maybe hang out? We could bake something?”, Bagi was surprised at her own words but somehow still managed to smile nervously.

“I-“, Tina stuttered a bit. “Yeah! I mean yes, I would love to. Sounds awesome.”, she could see the blush forming on her cheeks as she smiled shyly. “That sounds perfect Bagi.”

She smiled back at her, with more confidence now. “Well perfect! How about Tuesday? Tomorrow or next week? Cellbit has film club that day, so we won’t have to deal with his annoying ass.”

Normally Bagi would go to the library on Tuesday and wait until Cellbit was done because she didn’t want to ride the bus alone, but she knew that Tuesday was coincidentally the day that Roier had basketball practice. And Cellbit would love to watch him as it lasted longer than the normal after school activities, but he hadn’t done that in the past few weeks because he was a good brother for once and didn’t leave Bagi alone. This was a perfect opportunity for him to do that.

“Yeah, tomorrow is fine!”

“Perfect!”

================

As expected, Cellbit was more than excited about staying in school for longer on Tuesday. Bagi told him when they were on lunch break. He got this big grin on his face and got all giddy when he told Bagi that he’d be able to see Roier in a sleeveless shirt. Obviously, he was also very happy for Bagi after hearing that Tina would come over while he was away.

“Are you really going to bake something?”

“Yes absolutely, she loves baking.”, Bagi raised an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing! I just feel like that’s such a couple thing to do, I’m just surprised, okay?”

“Is it? I feel like I’d bake with my friends too.”

“Maybe it’s a girl thing.”

“Maybe but it should be a boys thing too. I feel like you’d love baking.”

“I’m already bad at cooking, I’m just going to burn shit.”

“I can teach you how to cook.”, a voice piped in from behind Cellbit. The latter turned around and Bagi looked over his shoulder. It was Roier who stood there with a sly grin on his lips. “Sorry I didn’t mean to spy on your conversation or something, I just overheard the last part.”

“No, it’s fine, don’t apologize. So, you like cooking?”, Cellbit turned more to be able to look at his crush which was Bagi’s cue to leave. She turned around without another word and walked over to the table Pac and Guaxinim were sitting at. Both Felps and Mike were sick today and stayed home.

They both greeted her as she sat down.

“And? Anything new going on with you guys?”

“Well Pac still hasn’t asked Fit out, but they did hang out yesterday.”

“He keeps on calling me his roommate even though we don’t even live in the same street.”, Pac let out a frustrated sigh. Bagi and Guaxinim couldn’t help but laugh at that and eventually Pac cracked a smile as well.

“What about you, Guaxinim?”

“Oh, not much. Rodezel introduced me to a new friend by saying that I like to flirt with people in a platonic way. And then he said that I never actually mean it unless it’s with him.”, he let out a sigh.

“That sounds good though? Why do you look like a kicked puppy then?”, Bagi asked.

“´That’s what I thought too but then he laughed and hit me on the back. So, he was joking again.”

“Oh, that sucks, I’m sorry about that. But you know maybe you should tell him that he was actually right. It seems like this guy is just absolutely lost and does not read signs well at all.”

“Yeah, maybe.”, he said with another defeated sigh.

Bagi was about to try and cheer up Guaxinim when she noticed something going on a few tables next to them where a bunch of boys sat. She looked over and realized that they were yelling at a group of girls and Foolish that were sitting at the table next to them. More specifically it was Tina with her friends Jaiden, Mouse, Baghera and Foolish. Bagi overheard some of the stuff the boys were shouting.

“Oh, look who we have here. The cheaters”

Bagi huffed angrily but decided to ignore it just like everyone at the table was. This wasn’t the first time that people had said this stuff to Tina or Foolish, she knew that. Though she really wanted to punch the ones who did.

“How long have you two been doing it behind their backs?”

Bagi could see Baghera, Jaiden and Mouse roll their eyes, but they still didn’t say anything. Neither did Foolish and Tina but they both looked far more uncomfortable. Tina was looking down at her abandoned food and was biting on her lips. Foolish’s leg was bouncing nervously under the table, and he was biting at his finger nails.

“I mean I always knew Tina was a slut but with someone who’s in a relationship too? How much of a whore do you want to be?”

Bagi sprung up at the last part and angrily walked over to the table, Guaxinim and Pac following her. Roier was also coming over with Cellbit following, he didn’t look too happy as well. The rest of the cafeteria had their heads turned in the direction of the commotion that was going on. The rest of the table Tina and Foolish were sitting at were also standing up apart from Tina who still sat there quietly looking like she was about to cry.

“What did you just say?”

“What did you just call her?”

Bagi and Roier arrived at the scene at the same time, stopping right between the two tables, both ready to fight who ever just insulted Tina. Behind them stood the rest of the people involved.

“I called her what she is. A slut.”, one of the boys spoke up with a big grin on his face. He was a few years under them, he seemed to be about 14 years old, maybe 15. All of the boys at the table seemed to be around that age. The rest of the boys on the table hollered in agreement.

“How dare you-“

Roier was about to take a step towards them when Cellbit held him back and whispered something in his ear. Roier closed his eyes for a second, took a deep breath and then nodded. Cellbit pat him on the shoulder and then left the cafeteria quickly. The boys didn’t even notice as they were still celebrating.

Bagi pushed back her sleeves and looked over at Roier. In the beginning, she didn’t really like him because he was dating Tina but now that they broke up and she knew that he probably liked Cellbit too, he seemed a lot more likeable. He looked back at her before slightly shaking his head. So, they were not going to beat up a group of 14- and 15-year-olds. Bagi was almost sad, but she kept her guard up just in case.

“How dare I what? Say the truth?”

“Say the truth? You don’t know shit dude.”, Roier spat back.

“I mean it’s cute that you want to protect her, but we all know that she cheated on you with Foolish. She’s always been like that.”

“And how do you know that huh?”, Bagi balled her fists.

“I just do. You can’t know that yet because you’re new but the whole school knows that she’s a whore.”

“Call her that one more time and you’re dead.”, Bagi gritted through her teeth. She looked over at Roier with an apologetic look, they didn’t want to fight but Bagi wasn’t going to let them keep talking about Tina like that. Roier nodded at her this time.

The boy stood up and walked right in front of Bagi. He was a bit shorter than Bagi but not by much. He looked her in the eye and with the biggest smile on his face said:

“Tina is a whore.”

Before she could do anything, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Bagi looked over to see Tina standing behind her, her eyes pleading her to not start a fight.

“Not so tough anymore? Real pathetic.”, he said and then swung to slap Bagi in the face, hard. Her face whipped to the side due to the impact. She hadn’t expected that and held her cheek in shock. Tina and Roier and basically everyone else gasped in shock as well. In the corner of her eyes, Bagi could see Roier take a step forward to shove the guy away from them. Tina still had her hand on Bagi’s shoulder.

Roier, Foolish and the group of boys were about to fight more when a loud yell made everyone stop in their motions. The principal walked through the doors of the cafeteria, following Cellbit.

“Stop! Everyone involved to my office right now!”

================

They spend the next few hours sitting in front of the principal’s office and one by one going inside to explain what happened. While they were waiting, Tina kept on apologizing to everyone for causing such a situation but Roier, Cellbit, Foolish and Bagi didn’t accept the apology.

“It’s literally not your fault. You didn’t do anything.”

“I didn’t think it would escalate this far.”

Cellbit had left to get a teacher and the principal ended up being the first one he saw. They had come inside the cafeteria just in time to witness the boy hit Bagi so there was not much room for discussion. He had told Roier to not instigate the fight and try to stall for some time before leaving.

Some people said that Cellbit was a snitch for calling a teacher and Bagi wasn’t sure how to feel about it as well, but he told her later on in private that he mostly did it because he didn’t want to risk either her or Roier getting kicked out of school or something. Bagi couldn’t really argue with that.

Since the boy was the one who hit first and started everything, they all just told the truth. In the end, the principal did believe them, especially since some students had started recording the whole ordeal. The boy and his friends got suspended for a week. Bagi only got a stern talking to from the principal about how she shouldn’t threaten other students. He was still understanding of her actions but told her to not do it again. Her cheek was still red and stung a little, but she was okay. Tina had sat next to her to check up on her multiple times while they were waiting.

After the decision was made, they were allowed to leave since classes were over anyways to the day. As her and Cellbit were about to leave the building to go to the bus station, Tina stopped them.

“Wait Bagi!”, they both stopped in their tracks and looked at her.

“I just wanted to say again that I’m so sorry you got hurt. I hope you still want to meet up tomorrow.”

“Of course I do Tina. And I’m fine, don’t worry about me.”

“Okay, see you tomorrow then.”, Tina smiled at her shyly.

“See you tomorrow.”, Bagi replied with a big smile.

================

Bagi couldn’t even describe how excited she was for Tina to come over. She barely slept at night as she couldn’t stop thinking about the following day. The school day was pretty much the same. Normally Bagi didn’t have big problems on focusing on school but today her thoughts kept on wandering.

Luckily Tina seemed to be just as excited as she was waiting at the school entrance with Foolish and Jaiden, waving her over.

“Hi Bagi!”

“Hey Tina! Hi Foolish, hi Jaiden.”, she greeted the group. Foolish looked a little bit better than the day before but anyone who knew Foolish knew that something was up. He was a lot quieter than usually, and the persistent smile was missing from his face.

“How is your face?”, Tina interrupted Bagi’s thoughts and looked at her concerned.

“Oh that? It’s fine, doesn’t even hurt anymore.”, and that wasn’t even a lie. “And how are you guys?”

“I’m okay, I still feel a bit uneasy because of yesterday but it’s fine.”, Tina pressed her lips together in a straight line.

“I’m just exhausted I guess”, Foolish replied sounding exhausted and tired as well.

“I’m doing fine, thank you for asking Bagi.”, Jaiden smiled at her. “Me and Foolish are doing a self-care day today. Have fun you, guys!”, and with that the two of them left.

“You too!”, and with that the two of them left.

Tina looked up at Bagi. “Let’s go?”

“Yeah!”

On the way home, Tina and Bagi talked about what ever came to mind, as always. For example, that Tina used to live in the same street as Bagi and Cellbit lived now. Tina also talked about where her family lived in South-Korea and how different it was from living here.

The first thing Bagi did when they arrived at the house was showing Tina her room. Contrary to her brother, she always unpacked all of her stuff. Even if it was annoying sometimes to repack everything, she couldn’t live with bare walls and no personality in her room.

She asked her parents to paint one of the walls in a dark mossy green. She put a dark brown desk with her computer and all of her school stuff against that wall and hung up the lesbian flag on it. Next to the desk was a yellow armchair with a reading lamp. Opposite of that wall was her bed with a nightstand and a bookshelf. It was on the same side as one of the windows. The other wall with a window had a dresser and a clothing rack against.

A bunch of plants were scattered throughout the whole room and a few pictures were on the walls. The room was light up through fairy lights and a few other softer lamps. There was a dark red carpet in the middle of the room. Bagi loved her room and Tina seemed to enjoy it too.

“I have fairy lights in my room too!”, she said excitedly.

“That’s so cool. Wait sit down, let me find the book I was going to give you.”

Tina sat down on Bagi’s bed as she looked through her bookshelf. When she finally found it, she sat next to Tina and put the book in her hands.

“I love it here. It’s so cozy.”

“Yeah, I love it here too. It’s one of my favorite rooms I’ve had.”

They sat and talked in her room for a bit before going downstairs to the kitchen to start baking. Bagi decided to make apple pie that day because she loved apple pie and so did Tina. While Bagi prepared the pie crust for them, Tina started to peel and remove the core of the apples before slicing them. During that the two of them never stopped talking.

“For how long have you been doing cheerleading now?”

“Oh, uhm I think like 10 years? I started in second grade I think.”

“Damn that’s a long time.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t feel that long to be honest. Do you do any kind of team sport?”

“No but me and Cellbit used to do Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Our dad did it too when he was younger, so he signed us up.”

“Oh, that sound cool.”

“It was but I don’t remember how to fight like that anymore. We stopped after we left Brazil because it became hard to find places to continue learning.”

“Makes sense. What did you guys do as children then?”

“We both love solving puzzles. Any kind to be honest. I’m also a big fan of optic illusion or magic cubes.”

“Wow that’s so cool.”, Bagi laughed as Tina said that.

“You keep on saying that, but I feel like you’re the only one who thinks so. I’m really not that cool, believe me.”

“No, I think you are. You’re very cool.” Bagi remembered the conversation she had with her brother a few days ago, she hated that he was right about Tina still thinking that she was cool.

“I think what you’re doing is cool as well. Flying through the sky and still looking great is probably one of the coolest things ever.”

Bagi barely missed the blush spreading on Tina’s cheeks when she looked to the side.

“And you do all of that and you’re still one of the best students in our year and like super smart. That’s cool.”

“Thank you Bagi.”

They continued to work on their pie together while talking. During that the topic of Spanish class came up so when the pie was in the oven, they got out their school stuff to study together, even though neither of them seemed really focused. It was a lot easier to get distracted by Tina’s beauty when she was sitting right in front of her, tucking her hair being her ears and looking at her paper in concentration.

“Wait can you explain this one to me?”, Tina pointed at one of the questions on the work sheet. Bagi stood up to go around to table and look at the question. Suddenly she was closer to Tina than she’d ever been before as she was leaning over the table. She could smell Tinas perfume from where she was standing. It distracted her so much that she almost forgot to answer Tinas question.

When their pie was done, they didn’t waste a lot of time and tried it immediately even though it was still hot. To their credit, it was a delicious pie. They were both proud of their accomplishment and Tina got to take a few slices back home with her when her mother came to get her.

They went upstairs to get Tinas stuff and say goodbye to each other. Their mothers staying downstairs, just talking to each other about their children. Bagi’s mother had arrived just an hour before Tinas. They were standing in the hallway in front of Bagi’s and Cellbit’s bedrooms, where their mothers couldn’t see them, when Bagi pulled Tina in for a hug to say goodbye.

They held each other for a few seconds, Bagi was enjoying the warmth that spread through her body as soon as she was hugging Tina. She could feel Tina leaning against her. They separated after a few moments, but Bagi stayed close to Tinas face. She hesitated for a second before pressing a soft kiss on her cheek. She then whispered in her ear.

“See you tomorrow, Tina.”

Tina blushed hard at that and tried to hide her face in her hands, but Bagi had already seen it and grinned in satisfaction. Tina rubbed her face with her hands for a second before brushing her hair back and clearing her throat.

“Yeah, see you- see you tomorrow Bagi.”

Chapter Text

If there was ever a moment where Cellbit could truly and honestly say how much he loved his sister, it was the moment that he sat down on the bleachers of the gym, watching Roier as he walked in for basketball practice. Cellbit was never a sports person but the next few hours he could not stop looking at the court, just watching Roier practically dance all over it, scoring one point after another.

While Roier wasn’t as tall as most basketball players, he was still one of the best players in the team and it made total sense why he was the captain. He kept on hyping up the other players, always keeping up the team spirit and trying to help his teammates. He was a ball of energy but all of his usual loud and chaotic behavior vanished the moment he was going for another shot. Cellbit had never seen anything hotter than a serious Roier who was all sweaty, quiet and with his eyebrows furrowed in concentration and then smiled in satisfaction when he scored successfully.

At the end of the practice session, Cellbit was nothing more than a puddle on the floor. His legs almost gave out when Roier finally spotted him on the bleachers and waved over to him with the brightest smile the world had ever seen. He waved back and tried to control his breathing when Roier came running over to him.

“Hey!”

“Hi”, he really tried not to look at Roier’s chest which was really well outlined underneath the tank top that was stuck to his skin. Since he had just ran over to him, Roier was breathing quite heavily so it was even harder for Cellbit to not look at the fast rising chest. The problem was that he didn’t know where else to look with Roier’s exposed arms and his face with his hair sticking to his forehead and his oh so beautiful smile. He decided to just look at Roier’s eyes and nowhere else.

He quickly realized that this was a mistake as well as Roier was also looking him in the eyes and wow it was really hard to concentrate under the fond look in his bright eyes.

“How long have you been watching?”

“Since- Since the beginning.”, to be fair, Cellbit really tried to not sound as flustered as he was, even though he was pretty sure his whole face was red. He cleared his throat, trying to get the shakiness in his voice under control.

“Did you enjoy it?”, was all he needed as confirmation that Roier knew exactly what he was doing to him. The grin on his face and his teasing tone betrayed him immediately.

“Of course I did.”, Cellbit tried to sound confident.

“Oh really? Who won?”, Roier teased him even more. He crossed his arms in front of his chest, which made it even harder for Cellbit to not look at either the toned chest or his muscular arms. Roier was a bit shorter than Cellbit, not by a lot just a few centimeters but Roier was most definitely stronger and more trained than Cellbit. Cellbit would describe his own physique as “lanky as fuck”. Which made Roier even more attractive in his eyes because he knew how easily he could probably overpower him.

“No idea. Wasn’t exactly looking at the score.” There was no use in pretending like he had spend a single second focused on the game. He knew that, Roier knew that, so he decided to just be honest with him.

“Oh? Where were you looking then?” Roier raised an eyebrow, still sporting a teasing grin.

“The ball of course.”

They both started to laugh. Cellbit loved hearing and watching him laugh. He did this thing where he squeezed his eyes shut when laughing and then held his hand in front of his mouth before hitting whatever was nearest of him. His laugh sometimes got really squeaky and it was super contagious. It was adorable.

“Oh wait I actually had something I wanted to ask you.”, Roier said once he calmed down from his laughing fit.

“Go on.”

“Can we meet again tomorrow for the project? And hope that we can actually get something done?”

“I mean we can try. I doubt that we will, but you can come over again if you want.”, Roier wiggled his eyebrows suggestively at that and Cellbit hit him lightly on his shoulder and mumbled “Pendejo”, which made Roier laugh again.

What ever their relationship currently was, was super weird to Cellbit. Roier definitely knew that Cellbit liked him, Cellbit was pretty sure that Roier liked him back. But neither of them had said anything so far. Their conversations were full of flirting and teasing at the moment and it was only a question of time until something would happen. One of them had to take the first step and Cellbit felt like the following day was going to be the perfect time for that.

“Okay so I will see you tomorrow then?”

“See you tomorrow Cellbit”, Roier waved before turning around and walking back to his teammates.
•••••••••
When he came home later, he was immediately dragged to his sisters room with no explanation other than “Something happened Cellbit.”

He sat down on Bagi’s armchair and watched her pace in circles around her room.

“So, what’s this about?”, he felt like a therapist while sitting in her armchair, he almost wanted to get a clipboard and make some notations.

“I kissed her on the cheek.”

Cellbit’s eyes widened. That was definitely not what he had expected. He thought this was more of a flirting situation maybe but a kiss on the cheek was definitely a lot more meaningful than flirting. Flirting could still be seen as something friendly, especially between girls. But a kiss? Now that was not so friendly anymore.

“Oh wow.”

“I know!”

“And what did she do?”

“Nothing? Well she blushed and then said goodbye because she had to go.”

“So she didn’t seem like she disliked it?”

“No but she also didn’t look like she particularly enjoyed it. I don’t know, what if that was too fast? God I’m so stupid.”

“Hey now slow down. I’m supposed to be the one calling you stupid. This was not a stupid move.”

Bagi just rolled her eyes and stopped pacing around to throw herself on her bed. She let out a frustrated groan in her pillow before lying on her back.

“I ruined everything.”

“Bagi. Calm down. You didn’t ruin anything. Maybe Tina just gay panicked? You’ve done that too, happens to the best of us.”

“But maybe she now thinks that I’m creepy weirdo.”

“Do you blush when a creepy weirdo kisses you on the cheek?”

Bagi didn’t answer that question and just let out a sigh, accepting defeat.

“I hate that you’re being reasonable.”

“Sorry for being right, as always.”

“Fuck off.”, Bagi flipped him off. “How did watching sweaty boys go?”

“I gay panicked hard and we flirted I think. And he’s coming over tomorrow.”

“Why does everything go smoother with you and Roier?”

“I have no idea. I’m surprised by how well this is going too.”

“I’m happy for you, you know? You look so much happier when you’re around him. I don’t think I’ve seen you smile as much in the past few years as you’ve been smiling since school started.”

Cellbit smiled at that. It was true, for a while Cellbit had been struggling with his own happiness. School was hard for him especially at those schools where he didn’t fit in. The bullying eventually took a toll on him and he lost a lot of his self confidence. He felt unmotivated to make new friends anymore and was just ready to give up on school. But this time everything went so much better. Not only did he meet Roier but a bunch of other lovely people that made him actually like going to school.

“Yeah I think this is good for me too, but same goes for you. You’ve been glowing recently.”

They both smiled at each other.

“So don’t give up on Tina yet. If she was uncomfortable, I feel like she’d tell you. She might be shy but she can stand up for herself.”

Bagi sighed one last time before nodding in agreement.

“Good luck for tomorrow. Not that you need it, Roier has you wrapped around his finger already.”
•••••••••

The following day, when Cellbit left the school building to find Roier so that they could go to the bus, the latter wasn’t cuddling Tina and making Cellbit want to die like the previous week. This time he was comforting a sad looking Foolish. The break up between him and Vegetta had obviously been pretty hard on him. He was slowly doing better but today seemed to be a bad day.

Roier was giving Foolish a hug and rubbing over his back. Next to them stood Jaiden and Badboyhalo who also tried to comfort Foolish. The blonde seemed to be inconsolable as he kept on sobbing in Roier’s arms.

Roier looked up at him when he came up to the group. He smiled sadly and mouthed a Hi , Cellbit waved back at him and watched as Roier began whispering something in Foolish’s ear. He could see Foolish nodding before letting go of Roier. He turned around for a second to give Cellbit a wave with a forced smile on his face. His eyes were red and swollen and he looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

Cellbit’s heart broke a little when seeing Foolish like this. The two of them got along pretty well and he would consider them friends already. He was usually the cheerful guy who made everyone around him happy, seeing him like this hurt. Cellbit opened his arms as an invitation for a hug, which Foolish accepted and whispered a Thank you . They hugged for a few moments before Cellbit let him go to turn to Roier. Jaiden immediately took over and guided Foolish back inside the school building.

“Ready?”

“Always.”
•••••••••
As always Cellbit’s parents weren’t home yet and Bagi was still at school, so the house was empty when Cellbit opened the front door. They went into the kitchen to heat up some left over noodles from the day before and then sat down to eat. All while still in conversation.

“Is it weird for you to see Foolish like this when you know your cousin is basically the reason for it?”

“Yeah I guess. Vegetta used to be like a brother to me but Foolish is one of my closer friends. I’ve known Vegetta for longer but Foolish knows me better. I don’t know, I feel bad for both sides. Vegetta still loves Foolish and this break up hurt him too but he’s the one who fell out of love you know? It’s hard to be on one person’s side.”

Cellbit nodded in agreement.

“Sounds complicated. I am glad that your and Tina’s break up was a lot less messy. You both almost seem happier than when you were together.”

Roier smiled at him.

“I think we are. We were not meant to be in a romantic relationship together.”

Cellbit only nodded in agreement.

After they were done eating, they went up to Cellbit’s room. To Roier’s surprise, Cellbit’s room had changed since he was last there a week ago. For some reason Cellbit had felt the urge to unpack some of his stuff. It wasn’t a lot. So far a few pictures of him and his family and some old friends were put up on the walls and a shelf. He also now had a nightstand with a red lamp on it and some dark blue curtains were now hanging on the side of the windows.

“Oh wow you’ve discovered colors.”

“Shut up.”, Cellbit nudged him with his shoulder. “I don’t know after you left last time I felt like this room was too depressing. Like I can’t invite people here if it's going to look like a hospital or something.”

“Does this mean you will invite me over more often?”

“Maybe.”, Cellbit said with a slight smile before they both sat down on the floor and actually started working on their history project.

They decided to go for a poster as their teacher had provided them with the paper and it was the quickest way to do for them. They were both working on separate sides of the posters with the information that they had gathered. Unfortunately Cellbit only had three markers with two of them being black and the other one being blue. So they had to share the third one while writing which resulted in their hands touching a lot as they kept on reaching for the marker at the same time.

At first they both kind of flinched and retreated their hands back and one of them quickly got the marker. But after the third time of “accidentally” reaching for it at the same time, they both began to just let their hands linger for longer than necessary before one of them took it. During the whole ordeal they didn’t look at each other once and sat in silence.

At some point it became obvious that it wasn’t coincidence anymore and by the fifth time Cellbit’s hand was basically just laying on top of Roier’s while the latter was grabbing the pen. He let his thumb caress the back of Roier’s hand in circles before slowly taking his hand back, waiting for a reaction.

His hand didn’t make it that far before Roier grabbed it again and just held his hand. Cellbit looked over at Roier in shock who was already looking at him, blush on his cheeks and eyes wide. They looked at each other for a second before both averted their gazes and Roier let go of Cellbit’s hand again. Cellbit cleared his throat and felt his face heat up as he tried to focus on what he was writing.

It only took a few more moments before Roier gave up and put his marker down with a sigh of frustration. Cellbit looked up at him in confusion.

“Everything alright?”

“No…”, Roier said quietly and looked Cellbit in the eyes.

Cellbit put his marker down as well and turned his body more towards the boy sitting next to him.

“Okay? What’s up then?”

He could see the hesitation in Roier’s eyes before he averted his gaze again. Roier looked to the side and let out a sigh and meet Cellbit’s eyes once more. Cellbit could see his cheeks getting red and blush spreading across his nose and neck. Roier nervously played with his own hand.

“Can I kiss you?”

It felt as if something in Cellbit brain short circuited. Like he was flat lining or something because just seconds earlier his head was racing with thoughts and possibilities of what could be Roier’s issue and just how handsome he was looking right now. And now there was just nothing. Absolutely no thoughts.

Luckily for him, his inner auto pilot seemed to have turned on because he felt himself nodding at Roier’s request. He saw Roier’s eyes go wide, he was probably experiencing the same thing Cellbit just did as he just stared at Cellbit in disbelief. From an outsider perspective it was probably a pretty ridiculous sight, the two of them sitting next to each other, just staring at one another in complete silence and without any movement but them blinking.

Again, luckily for the both of them, Cellbit’s brain was slowly catching up and he had enough brain capacity to realize that you had to be closer to each other for a kiss, so Cellbit scooted closer to Roier so that their knees were touching and leaned forward a bit.

It seems that Roier’s brain was also slowly catching up as he put a hand on the side of Cellbit’s neck to pull him closer while leaning forward himself. They were already so close that Cellbit could count the freckles on Roier’s cheeks and feel his breath on his face. They both closed their eyes as they got even closer, their lips almost brushing against each other.

Suddenly Roier stopped moving and whispered,

“Are you sure?”, Cellbit could almost feel the vibration of Roier speaking against his own lips as he held his breath.

At this point Cellbit’s brain was at full capacity again so he answered with a,

“If you don’t kiss me right now, I will punch you in the face Roier.”

And that seemed to be very effective as their lips met the next second.

Cellbit had never kissed anyone before. When he was younger he’d exchanged pecks on the mouth with some girls but that was it. For a second Cellbit thought that he was dreaming when he realized that he was having his first kiss with the most beautiful boy he’d ever laid eyes on.

Immediately upon meeting Roier’s soft lips, a feeling of warmth spread through his body. It wasn’t like they always described it in the movies or books with the butterflies or fireworks. Cellbit felt none of that. It was just a comforting warmth. The warmth that felt like the sun on your skin on a summer day but not in a burning sensation, not too hot. Just warm enough to heat up your body the longer you’re in it. Just as warm and soft as Roier’s lips.

For a second neither of them moved but then Roier tilted his head a bit and slowly began moving his lips against Cellbit’s. Cellbit started to copy what Roier was doing. He was pretty sure that Roier could tell that he was inexperienced but he didn’t seem to mind. In fact he seemed to be doing something right by the satisfied hum he let out.

The hand on his neck moved from the side to the back of Cellbit’s neck where he buried his hand in his hair. His hands found their way to Rivers shoulder and his waist, trying to pull him closer.

Their noses brushed against each other as they separated for a second to breathe. Both of them opened their eyes to look at the other. They smiled at each other for a second before Cellbit pulled Roier on top of his lap. It was a bit awkward at first, but Roier positioned himself with his legs on each side of Cellbit’s lap.

Cellbit tilted his head upwards as their lips met once again. This time he could feel Roier’s body against his, his weight in his legs grounding him in a comforting way. He wrapped his arms around Roier’s waist and held him closer as Roier cradled his face in his one hand and stabilized himself with the other hand on his shoulder. The kiss was soft and tasted as sweet as the apple pie Tina and Bagi made yesterday. Cellbit felt like he was about to float away.

After a while of them just moving their lips against each other, Roier backed off a bit, separating them. Cellbit let out a disappointed noise before he could feel Roier’s forehead against his. He still had his eyes closed.

“You’ve never kissed anyone before this, have you?” Roier whispered to him.

“No…”, Cellbit whispered back.

“How the fuck could anyone not want to kiss you? Whatever, I’m your first kiss, fuck yeah.”, Roier sounded way too happy about that so Cellbit softly pinched the skin at his waist, making Roier let out a quiet yelp.

“Culero. I hope it wasn’t too bad.”

Roier made a sound of disapproval before giving Cellbit a kiss on the forehead and then tilting his chin upwards. Cellbit opened his eyes to meet his gaze.

“This was probably the best kiss I’ve ever had, okay? And even if it had been bad, that doesn’t matter. I wanted to kiss you.”

“Well, that’s good to hear.”, Cellbit sat up a bit more to steal another quick kiss from Roier’s lips.

“There is something we need to talk about though.”, Roier said suddenly in a very serious tone. Cellbit was about to get ready for Roier to stand up and never look at him again because this was a one time thing or something.

Instead Roier made no effort in getting up and stayed seated on Cellbit’s lap. He also started playing with his hair and looked him in the eyes.

“No one can know. That this happened I mean. Or that this will happen again. If you want for it to happen again I mean.”

“Do I want you to kiss me again? Of course I do, this was the best kiss I’ve ever had. Well, it was my first one but still.”

Roier rolled his eyes at that with a smile but then quickly got serious again. “Okay seriously though. You can tell Bagi and I will tell Tina but that’s it for now. People can’t know that I’m gay. Not yet.”

Cellbit’s eyes widened before he furrowed his eyebrow in confusion. “You’re gay? I thought you were like bi or something? Wait, why did you date Tina then? Did you only find out like last week?”

Roier hesitated for a second before he sighed. “We never dated. Well we did but it was all fake. It was out of convince and for our safety. I’ve known that I was gay since 6th grade I think.”

“Wait so no one knew that you were never actually dating?”

“Well a few people know. Foolish, Jaiden and Mariana but that’s it. Not even our parents know. Which is why you have to promise me to not tell anyone.”

“Of course I promise you. Not that I would out anyone anyways but yeah I will make sure no one knows apart from Bagi.”

“Thank you.” Roier gave him a small kiss.

“Can I ask why? Why you’ve not told anyone?”

“Mostly because of my parents. They would not approve I think. And I can’t tell people at school because rumors spread so quickly. They would know immediately.”

“That sucks, I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

Cellbit pulled Roier in a hug, even though it was a bit awkward with their current position. As they separated, Roier stood up and helped Cellbit to stand up as well before pulling them to Cellbit’s bed.

This time Roier sat in between Cellbit’s legs which were stretched over each side of Roier’s hips, facing each other. They just looked at each other for a few seconds before Cellbit brought a hand up to Roier’s cheek. He softly moved his thumb over his cheek while closing the distance between them again.

They continued to kiss for a while, stopping sometimes in between to talk in low voices.

“Pac is going to be so jealous if you eventually do come out .”

“Why? Does he want to kiss me too?”

“No, but because I knew that you were gay before him. Did you know that’s one of the first things he told me about you?”

“Really?”

“Yeah he said that a guy with that kind of ass could not be straight.”

Roier laughed so hard that he was holding his belly and leaned forward, his forehead landing of Cellbit’s shoulder. Cellbit laughed to and started to finger-comb through his locks. Roier let his head stay there while slowly calming down until his laugh dissolved into light giggles. He then sat up normally again to look Cellbit in the eyes.

“And what do you think? Do you agree with him?”

“I mean you do have a nice ass, gotta give you that. I don’t know if I would call it a gay ass, though.”

They both started laughing again.

When they finally calmed down, Roier closed the distance between him and Cellbit again so that their forehead were touching again. Cellbit closed his eyes again as Roier grabbed both of his hands, just holding them in his. They sat like this for a while without talking, listening to the other breathing before Roier broke the silence.

“It’s going to be even harder to concentrate on history class now.”

“Yeah? It’s going to be even harder to not constantly stare at you in P.E. class.”

“Well you already do that so nothing is going to change.”

“Fuck you”, Cellbit said while laughing.

“Shut up. We are actually going to have to be careful. No one can find out.”

“I will be fine. I’m not that touchy.”

“Oh really? Who was the one who put his hand over mine earlier? When I was trying to get the marker?”, Roier teased playfully.

“You grabbed my hand right after that”

“But you started it!”, Roier exclaimed in exaggerated shock.

“Fine. You’re right. We both have to keep our hands to ourselves in school.”

“Both of us?! You-“, Cellbit cut him of by pressing a kiss on his lips, effectively shutting him up.

“This is great. Now I can shut you up more easily.”

“You’re enjoying this was too much.”

“Don’t pretend like you don’t enjoy it.”, they continued to bicker for a bit until suddenly Cellbit’s door was opened without a knock. They tried to separate as quickly as possible, knocking their heads together in the act. They both groaned in pain.

“Cellbit you won’t believe what-“

Bagi burst into Cellbit’s room, speaking in rapid Portuguese, ready to rant about something that happened at school, most likely something about how hot Tina was. She stopped mid sentence and looked at them in shock.

“Oh my god have you ever heard of knocking Bagi?!”, Cellbit yelled back in Portuguese, still holding his head in his hands. Roier and him had managed to separate a little in the small timeframe they had but it was still obvious what had happened by the location of their pain and the fact that they were sitting so closely together.

As she recovered from her shock, Bagi closed the door behind her before she continued talking in Portuguese.

“Wow that’s not what I expected. Well it kind of is because this was going to happen sooner or later but I am still surprised by how quickly it happened.”

“Please shut up Bagi. You’re already embarrassing me.”

“I know that’s my job.”

“Please don’t tell anyone.”, Roier interrupted their conversation in Portuguese.

Bagi looked at him in surprise before slowly nodding.

“Okay I won’t? Why?”, she switched to English.

They quickly explained the situation to her, she also comforted Roier about the situation with his parents by patting him on the shoulder. She also promised that she wouldn’t tell a soul.

“Okay anyways I’m coming back later Cellbit.”

“Yes please leave now.”

“Oh and Roier, if you hurt him I will break all of your bones, don’t think I won’t.”, and with that she left again.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry.”, Cellbit apologized quickly.

Roier only laughed at that. Before he could say anything, the notification sound of his phone interrupted him. Roier took a look at his phone before pocketing it and standing up to get his bag.

“Yeah that’s my dad. He’s waiting outside.”

“Okay”, Cellbit took a look at their unfinished poster as he stood up as well. “We still have a week right? We could finish it on the weekend maybe?”

“Sounds perfect.”, Roier cam up to stand in front of Cellbit. He grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it lightly before kissing him goodbye. “See you tomorrow”

“See you tomorrow.”
•••••••••
After Roier left, Cellbit immediately ran over to Bagi’s room to tell her everything that happened. He did leave out some of the details but he still caught her up on the most important things.

She then caught him up on what she was going to tell him earlier when she had barged into the room. As expected, it was mostly about how hot Tina looked in her cheerleading uniform but then she told him about the conversation the two had.

“Roier’s birthday is like next week or something and Tina asked me if we wanted to get ready together. Normally she’d do that with Foolish and Jaiden but she wanted to it with me this year!”

“It’s Roier’s birthday next week?”

“Yeah on Friday, I’m pretty sure.”

“He didn’t tell me about that.”

“Oh I’m sure he just forgot, surely he will invite his boyfriend.”

Cellbit froze at the word boyfriend.

“Wait he is your boyfriend now right?”

Cellbit was about to say yes but then stopped himself. They didn’t once talk about being in a relationship or dating. The word boyfriend was not uttered once. As the realization dawned on him, his eyes went wide and he was completely frozen.

“Cellbit please tell me you didn’t forget to ask him.”

Cellbit held a hand up to his mouth. How could he forget? Was he really so caught up in his feelings that he forgot to tell Roier about them? Did Roier also forget? Or did he not want a relationship which is why he didn’t ask? Or did Roier now think that Cellbit didn’t want to be in a relationship? What if Roier only wanted to kiss him because he was bored or something? What if Roier didn’t actually want to talk to him anymore?

“Oh my god, boys are so stupid.”

Chapter Text

There was never a moment in Tina’s life where she wanted to get out of a room as quickly as she did when Bagi kissed her on the cheek. And listen, it’s not that she was unhappy about the kiss, she was actually embarrassingly excited about it. But there were a few problems with the whole situation that made Tina panic so hard that she couldn’t stand being in the same room with Bagi any longer. Which is why she immediately left.

Problem number 1:
Her mother was standing just a few meters away from them. Yes, she couldn’t see the two of them and Bagi’s action was so quiet that she couldn’t have possibly heard it. But the fact that she was there, already pressured Tina enough. The moment her mother walked through the door of Bagi’s house, Tina’s whole body tensed up and she couldn’t stop thinking about every single one of her movements. Tina’s mother was very strict when it came to her daughter. Especially when they had guests over or were visiting other people. She should not stand out of line and had to be on her best behavior. As Tina got older, her strict nature lessened at least sometimes but Tina’s behaviors whenever her mother was in the room with other people, never changed.

Not to mention the fact that Tina’s mother was very homophobic, and Tina knew that. She was glad that Bagi’s and Cellbit’s rooms were upstairs because that way she couldn’t see the lesbian flag in Bagi’s room. If she did, her mother probably wouldn’t allow her back in the house. She already had problems with Foolish being openly gay, but she had come to accept that Tina was never going to let her friend go. So Foolish just never came over to Tina’s place, just to avoid any confrontation with her parents as they usually asked him if he has found a girlfriend yet or if he had changed his “lifestyle”. No one really did come over to her house anyways, apart from Roier and Jaiden.

And then there was Problem number 2:
A kiss on the cheek basically confirmed that Bagi also had feelings for Tina. It wasn’t a 100% confirmation but more than anything else that Bagi had been doing that could be interpreted in the same way. This was pretty solid proof. And that should make Tina happy, right? Her crush actually returned her feelings, that’s amazing, right?

But for some reason, Tina wasn’t happy. She was really scared. This has never happened to her before. She had crushes on girls before, but she never acted upon it, and they never said anything about also liking her. And then she and Roier started dating and she wouldn’t even wonder if a girl likes her too because she knew that all chances were out the window.

But now there was a chance. Now her and Roier weren’t dating anymore and now she was closer to a girl actually liking her back than she had ever been. And that somehow scared her. She felt like she wasn’t really ready for all of this, for possibly a relationship. It was pathetic really. She’d been waiting and hoping for this for so long. Dreaming about this moment, this opportunity but now that it was here, Tina got scared and basically ran away. It all was way too real for Tina, which scared the shit out of her.

Problem Number 3 scared her too:
Tina does not like physical affection sometimes. She was never an overly touchy person and always preferred keeping her hands to herself but most of the time she was fine with handshakes, hugs, holding hands and more casual physical contact like bumping shoulders. But on some days, she couldn’t even stand her shoulder touching someone else’s. On some days, just touching Roier’s hands made her physically recoil. For the record, this was not a trauma response, she just didn’t like the feel of skin sometimes.

Kissing was a more constant issue. It was fine with Roier because there were no feelings and they kept it short as he knew about her issue and because again, there were no feelings so no need for a longer kiss. When she was younger, she did kiss a few guys, and she always disliked it. She didn’t know if that was because they were guys or because she didn’t like kissing at all.

This whole issue worried her quite a bit as she couldn’t imagine how to tell Bagi that if they went as far as being in a relationship, there would be moments where she couldn’t touch her. She was scared that Bagi would have a problem with that and maybe not want to be with here anymore.

================

The next day, Tina used their break time to get Roier in a supply closet to talk. This time, she didn’t look for him but instead messaged him beforehand in which supply closet she was hiding and that they needed to talk. He came in only a minute after Tina entered.

“Hey, what’s going on?”, he closed the door behind him and leaned against it.

“Bagi kissed me on the cheek.”, Roier looked at her in surprise. “And I kind of ran away, well not really but I panicked and now I don’t know how to talk to her or how to even be in the same room with her.”

“Wait why? That means she likes you.”

“I know and that’s the problem”

His expression changed from excited and happy to confused.

“What are you talking about?”

“Listen, I’m scared as fuck that she actually likes me. This has never happened before, and I really like her too, so I want to make this work. But I can’t even be in a relationship with her because of my parents. And I feel like I’m not ready for this. And you know about my issues with touch sometimes.”, she rambled a bit.

“Oh Tina”, Roier gave her a hug.

“It’s going to be okay. Maybe just try to talk to her. Tell her that you’re scared. You should tell her the truth. Because avoiding her now or lying to her will only make things worse. I know you said that you can’t even be in the same room with her but that’s what you thought when you met her for the first time too. You can do it.”

“Are you going to tell Cellbit the truth too?”

“Yeah, I think so, I feel like it’s time.”

“Okay now you can go, I know you’re dying to tell me something. I can see it in your eyes.”

And for the next 10 minutes, Tina had to listen to Roier ranting about how Cellbit came to his practice yesterday and how he was going to his house today. He seemed really excited because Cellbit was giving some signals that he actually liked Roier back. Tina was really happy for them. Roier deserved this so much.

============

As always on Wednesdays, Bagi came to Tina’s cheerleading practice to watch her. Tina always tried to ignore it a little because it was really distracting. She was really distracting. Sitting there with her with her book, looking all smart and mysterious and pretty, it was hard to focus sometimes. After they were done Bagi quickly went to use the bathroom, so Tina sat in the hallway, waiting for her since she still needed to talk to her.

At some point during her wait, Quackity walked through the hallway, spotting Tina immediately and walking over to her. Tina and Quackity had known each other for a while. Roier and Quackity used to be best friends when they were younger. Due to a fight between them and another friend of them, they decided to not be friends anymore about 2 years ago. Her and Quackity would occasionally still talk to another. They weren’t best friends, but they knew each other well enough.

“Hi Tina, what’s up?”

“Hey. Nothing much to be honest. Just waiting for a friend.”

“Can I sit down?”, he pointed to the empty spot on the floor next to her. She nodded and he did just that.

“So, I heard you and Roier broke up? Did you finally get tired of him?”

While Roier didn’t particularly like Quackity, he’d never tell Tina to stop talking to him and just let her do whatever she wanted. Quackity was quite the opposite. Generally, Quackity was a nice person, Tina knew that. He was very active in school activities, was elected for student council for the second year in a row. He always helped new students find their way and overall was really nice.

But when it came to Roier, a whole other side came out of him. Roier never talked badly about Quackity to Tina. He knew that they were still friends, so he tried to be as neutral as possible. Tina had suspected for a while that Quackity might have or had a crush on Roier, which would explain why he was so adamant about Tina breaking up with him. Quackity and Roier stopped talking a few months before Tina and Roier started dating and ever since then, Quackity would tell Tina that they should break up. And even when they were still friends, Quackity always seemed to adore Roier and would sometimes even get jealous when Tina and Roier spend more time together.

But then there was this mysterious guy that was apparently Quackity’s boyfriend. No one in the school had ever met this guy. Some had caught a glimpse of him, but no one actually know who he was. From Quackity’s stories they only knew that he was supposed to go to this school, but he dropped out to focus on his passion which was filmmaking. Apparently, he had made a short movie. The other two things they knew about him was that he had brown hair and was a smoker. One of the tutors who came in every once in a while, Philza, told them that he was indeed real. The two of them had been friends for ages and he lived with him for a while. But most people still weren’t really convinced.

Tina rolled her eyes before looking at Quackity, clearly annoyed. “Stop it. You know that that’s not true. We just don’t work as a couple.”

Apparently, that was enough for Quackity, and he changed the subject.

“Have you met the new students yet? The Brazilian twins?”

Tina nodded. “I have, I am actually waiting for one of them right now. Why are you asking?”

“Nothing nothing. I met Cellbit on the first day, he’s really cool and really really handsome.”

“Don’t you have a boyfriend?”

“Well yes I do but can’t one man appreciate the beauty of another?”, he said with a smile on his face that honestly looked kind of creepy, almost threatening in Tina’s opinion but maybe she was just seeing things.

“I mean yeah but when you say it, it sounds very suspicious. What are you up to?”

Quackity only grinned at her before he stood up and waved her goodbye. For a second Tina thought about following him and demanding answers but the moment Quackity stood up, the doors to the bathroom opened and Bagi came out.

“Everything alright?”

“Yeah, Quackity is just being odd as always.”

Bagi sat down next to Tina, putting her bag on her lap and turning to the side to look at Tina. Today she had her hair in a French braid over her shoulder, mixing the brown strand with the white blonde hair. Her bangs surrounded her face as always.

“So Roier’s birthday is next week. Do you want to go there together? We could get ready together at my house if you want?”, Tina started.

“I would love to!”, her whole face light up as she smiled at Tina, almost making her forget about everything around her.

“Great”, for a second Tina thought about telling Bagi everything that had been going on in her mind recently but then a student came down the hallway and she got scared. They would need to find a place to talk more privately.

“Hey, can we meet in the library tomorrow? Maybe before lunch break? I need to talk to you about something.”

“Yeah sure!”

On her way home, she got a message from Roier saying that they needed to talk as soon as possible and that something happened, something good. They arranged to meet tomorrow in the same supply closet as today. Roier seemed super excited, like he couldn’t wait to tell her.

================

The first thing Tina woke up to in the morning was a message by Roier saying that he fell ill and that they would need to talk some other day. She did want to know what happened the day prior since she knew that Roier was at Cellbit’s house that day, but Roier told her that it was nothing he could tell her over the phone.

This is an eye to eye matter

I hate you

I want to know what happened

I know
Also just in case Cellbit asks, tell him that it’s not because of him. I am genuinely sick. I don’t want him to think that I’m avoiding him.

Am I a carrier pigeon or something?

Well you look like one
Also I don’t have his number

Fuck you I am telling Cellbit that you hate him and never want to talk to him again

Apparently Roier knew his crush pretty well because on their first break, while she was putting away her books in her locker, Cellbit came over to her, looking pretty worried. He avoided looking Tina in the eyes and kept on looking around them, even though no one else was there.

“Hey Tina.”

“Hi Cellbit, what’s up?”, she knew what he was about to ask but she decided that it might be amusing to watch him try and ask about Roier while clearly being very flustered. And Cellbit did not disappoint.

“Uhm so I was just gonna ask…uh did- did Roier talk to you? About what happened yesterday?”

Tina had to stop herself from laughing at the poor guy. It was quite adorable to see someone be that hopelessly in love with her best friend. And in contrast to all the girls that used to line up for Roier, Cellbit seemed to be genuinely interested in him, so Tina was okay with him acting like a fool.

“Not really, he wanted to tell me in person. But I know something happened. I’m guessing it was pretty significant.”

Cellbit smiled and blushed but nodded eagerly. “Yeah, you could say that.”, he paused before looking at her with worry again. “but like, do you know how he’s feeling about it? Or do you know why he’s not here?”

Tina decided to take pity on him and pulled her phone out while laughing a little.

“Calm down, lover boy.”, she turned her phone around for Cellbit to see Roier’s message.

She could see him physically relax as he read the message and then he smiled brightly at her. “Thank you so much Tina. You’re the best.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“If you want to, I can tell you what happened yesterday.”
Tina just shook her head. “As much as I want to know what happened, I think Roier might kill me and possibly you if he isn’t the one to tell me.”

Cellbit laughed and Tina could see the fondness in his eyes as she said that. She could tell that Cellbit actually liked Roier a lot. She couldn’t even put in words how grateful she was for that. Her best friend deserved someone who treasured and loved him as much as she did but in a romantic way. And it seemed like Cellbit was just the guy for that.
================

Just before lunch break, Tina walked into the library to find Bagi already waiting for at one of the tables. They waved at each other and Tina gestured her to follow her into the far corner which was quieter and even less students walked by.

The corner had a few sofas which were probably older than Tina herself but at least they were still comfortable. They had lost most of their color, but you could still see that one of them was supposed to be blue and the other green. Tina sat down and brought her knees up to her chin while Bagi sat next to her with her legs crossed. She let her hair fall on front of her eyes, not even bothering to brush it away. Apparently Bagi had other ideas as she carefully brushed her hair out of her face and tucked it behind Tina’s ears.

“Hey”, Bagi spoke in a low voice.

“Hi”, Tina replied, as calmly as possible.

“So, what’s this about? You wanted to talk?”

Tina nodded. “It’s about what happened when I was at your house on Tuesday.”

Bagi’s eyes widened. “Oh…”

“Yeah, so uhm… I’m really sorry.”

Bagi looked at her in confusion, her eyebrows furrowed. “What?Why?”

“I shouldn’t have just run away. And it’s not that I don’t like you or something, I promise I do but I just kind of got scared and I feel like I’m not really ready for this and I know this is super stupid and I’m so so sorry but-“, she started to ramble quietly until Bagi took her hand.

“Hey, it’s okay. Take a deep breath.”, Tina breathed in through her nose and out of her mouth before sighing again. Normally she would’ve already let Bagi’s hand go but at this time no one would come to the library and especially not to this far corner, so they were pretty safe.

And also, Bagi’s hand was so soft and slightly colder than Tinas that it was just very comforting to hold. Bagi’s hands was a bit bigger than Tinas and her long fingers wrapped around hers perfectly. The rings on her fingers were a bit cold to the touch but in a calming way somehow.

“God I’m a mess, I’m so sorry.”, Tins shook her head.

“Hey Tina. It’s okay. Let’s go through this slowly, okay?”

Tina nodded at her, still holding Bagi’s hand. She squeezed her hand softly so that Tina would look at her. The two of them locked eyes as Bagi continued talking in a low voice.

“So, you do like me?”

Tina could feel the blush spreading all over her face before she nodded. She turned her head to the side and bit her lip, trying to stop herself from smiling. She was embarrassed, she couldn’t even look Bagi in the eyes bit at the same time she couldn’t help but smile at the thought. “I think so.”

“Okay good, I like you too.”, Bagi paused, Tina looked at her again, both of them smiling shyly. “But you said you’re not ready and you’re scared?”

“Yeah, it’s really stupid.”

“I don’t believe that. Tell me why you’re scared.”

“I’ve never been with a girl before. This is the first time that a girl likes me back and I’m scared that I will mess up everything. This was something I always dreamed about but now that it’s actually happening, I don’t know, my mind just went into panic mode. I feel like something deep inside me still can’t believe that someone actually likes me.”

“And also, I’m not that sure about showing physical affection and just physical contact. The thought of it sometimes makes me want to throw up. Most of the time it’s okay, but sometimes I don’t even like the feeling of someone else touching any part of my body. And the thought of kissing someone, like actually kissing, I don’t know if I ever want that. It was fine with Roier because I’ve known him basically my whole life and a peck on the lips didn’t mean anything. But with you it does mean something. And I don’t want to disappoint you.”

“That sounds pretty reasonable to me. I don’t understand how no girl has ever liked you back because you are the loveliest person I’ve ever met, but everything else makes sense.”

Tina blushed again at her words. “Does it?”

“Yes, and I have no problem with taking it more slowly if that would help you. Or just wait until you’re ready. Whatever you think is better.”

“Really? You would do that for me?”

“Of course. There is no rush. We can take our time. I don’t think I’m going to stop liking you anytime soon if you’re being as wonderful as you are right now.”

“Stop it”, Tina said in the most adoring voice she had ever heard from herself and softly pushed her shoulder. “But yeah, I would like that.”

“So do you want to just take it slowly or should I wait until you’re ready?”

“I don’t think I will ever be completely ready, so taking it slowly is better I think.”

“Yeah, okay that’s fine. Just tell me what you’d like me to do and what’s too much for you at the moment. And you don’t have to return every bit of affection if you don’t feel ready yet. There is no pressure. And you can always change your mind. If you never want to kiss me, that’s totally fine.”

Tina nodded and felt herself relax visibly. A huge amount of pressure just fell from her chest, and she felt like she could breathe a lot better. The feeling of someone validating your feelings and telling you that it’s okay to feel that way and that their opinion of you didn’t change, truly meant the world.

“Good, so is this, okay?”, Bagi pointed at their hands which were still intertwined. Tina nodded while smiling a little.

“Great. And the kiss on the cheek? Was that too much?”

“No, that was okay. I was just panicking because I thought of what that meant. And also, my mother was there. I know she couldn’t see us, but my parents are really homophobic.”

“Okay so nothing in front of your parents?”

“I think a hug is okay. I know it’s not the same but for now I think it’s better like that.”, Tina paused for a second to think before she continued to talk. “Generally, I think everything apart from kissing is okay but there will be moments where I will not want to touch you or for you to touch me. I just don’t want you to take that personally when it happens, it’s a me thing.”

Bagi nodded at her. “Okay and could I call you, my girlfriend? Or is that too much?”

Tina felt herself blush but at the same time she could feel a bright smile make its way on her face. Bagi smiled back at her. Tina thought about how stupid they must look, two girls just sitting on a sofa just smiling at each other.

“Yeah, I would love that. But we have to be careful. Even in school, no one can know. It’s too risky because if rumors will get out, my parents will know.”

Bagi nodded again. She started to softly caress the back of Tina’s hands with her thumb.

“Okay that’s fine for me. Is it okay if I tell Cellbit? I’m assuming you will tell Roier as well?”

“Yeah, they can know.”, Tina sighed and slightly squeezed Bagi’s hand. “Thank you. You’re amazing”

Bagi brought their hands to her lips and pressed a small kiss on the back of Tina’s hand, watching her reaction the whole time. “No problem my lady”, Tina laughed a little at that.

“I do have one question though.”, Bagi said.

“Yeah?”, Tina tilted her head slightly to the side.

“Earlier you said that a kiss on the lips with Roier was okay because it didn’t mean anything. What did you mean by that?”

“Okay so the truth is that Roier and I were never actually dating. We just pretended to be together for multiple reasons but one of them being that both of our parents always said that we should date and when I found out that I liked girls, it was just convenient.”

“Oh, and because he’s gay so it was convenient for him too.”

“Wait how do you know that he’s gay?”, Tina looked at her in surprise.

“He told me, yesterday.”

For a few seconds, Tina just blinked at Bagi in confusion before her brain finally made the connection. “Oh my god, you know what happened between him and Cellbit?”

Bagi nodded with a grin.

“Wait don’t tell me. Roier wants to tell me on his own.”, she paused for a second. “Oh my god I’m going to his house today, I need to know what happened.”

Bagi started laughing as she whipped out her phone and started messaging Roier.

I am coming over later. I don’t care that you’re sick, I need to know what happened. And I need to tell you what happened to me today.

I guess I don’t have a choice anyways so see you later

“Okay I am finding out what happened later but that’s not important now. Thank you again for everything Bagi.”, Tina squeezed her hand one more time before she let go.

“Again, no worries. I gotta go now and find my brother. See you later.”, Bagi said before pressing a kiss on Tina’s temple and then leaving the library.

Tina kept sitting in the corner for a few more minutes, trying to calm her fast-beating heart and stop herself from smiling so much.
================

After school Tina took the bus to Roier’s house. His parents lived in the outskirts of the city in a small house with a big garden. The house wasn’t that big, but it fit the four-person household perfectly. Roier had a younger sister called Leonarda who just recently turned five years old. Roier loved her to death and always took care of her. The two of them were truly adorable. Leo also adored Tina and always said she was her Tia Tina.

Going to Roier’s house always felt nostalgic to Tina as she had spent a big part of her childhood here. Tina and her parents lived more towards the city center in an apartment. It was a pretty big apartment but since her best friend had a whole garden to himself, the two of them would hang out there most of the time.

Roier’s mother let her inside and promptly pulled her into a hug. His parents were always fond of Tina and loved her like their own daughter, which she was really thankful for. Roier’s mother was a small Mexican woman that just radiated motherly warmth. She’d always make sure that Tina was eating enough and generally cared for Tina. She told her once that she always wanted a daughter which was why she cared so much for Tina. And also, because she knew how happy Tina and Roier were when they were together. She was sad about their breakup but she still loved Tina the same.

After a hug and a quick chat with Roier’s mother, she went up the stairs to Roier’s room. Fortunately, Roier’s mom was on her way out to the store so they would have the house to themselves, meaning there was no way of anyone hearing them talk. Normally they would try to not talk about anything like this in one of their homes because of the risk of their parents hearing them.

When she opened the door, Roier was lying in bed, watching something on his phone with his blanket pulled up to his chin. There was a big mug on nightstand with steaming hot tea. Roier’s nose was all red and she could hear him sniffle and cough from outside the door. He noticed her as she walked through the door, so he put away his phone and sat up a little.

“Hey dumbass”, his voice was all raspy and she could tell that his nose was blocked.

“Hey asshole. You look terrible.”, she said while putting down her bag. She’d taken off her shoes and her coat downstairs.
“Thanks, I try my best.”, he coughed “I feel terrible.”

Tina sat down on the chair at Roier’s desk and turned towards him while crisscrossing her legs.

“Okay give me the tea now. What happened yesterday?”

“We kissed. Like a lot.”, Roier grinned and despite him looking really sick, his whole face lit up and the smile on his face just affirmed Tina in her suspicions about just how in love he was.

Tina looked at him with an open mouth and wide eyes, no words coming out of her mouth. For a few seconds, she just stared at him like that before regaining composure.

“You kissed? Like on the lips?”

Roier nodded excitedly with a big smile on his face. He seemed to be pretty satisfied with himself. He looked like he has just won the lottery as he was telling her about the events from the previous day.

“And I was his first kiss.”

“Damn, no wonder he looked so happy today.”

“Did he?”

“Yeah, he was all worried about you and then I showed him your message and he got like really happy. Like he’d just heard this the won a million dollars.”

Roier smiled even more, seemingly satisfied with himself. “Yeah, he looked exactly like that, except you look a bit dumber.”, she teased. Roier threw a pillow at her.

“Rude?!”, he said in an offended tone.

“Oh, cry me a river. Anyways are you guys dating now?"

Roier sighed. “Well not officially, we haven’t talked about it yet. I was going to ask him about it today but oh well…”

“Why didn’t you talk about it yesterday?”

“I guess we just forgot?”

“Oh my god you boys are so stupid, that’s ridiculous.”

“Whatever, tell me what happened with you today. Since your love game is so much better.”, Roier stuck out his tongue at her, earning a pillow in the face.

“Well, Bagi is my girlfriend now.”, Tina answered smugly.

Roier gasped audibly, regretting it immediately as he threw a coughing fit and couldn’t stop for a few seconds. When he finally calmed down, he looked at Tina in shock.

“What the fuck? How did that happen?”

“Well, we are indeed able to communicate, and I told her that I liked her but that I am very scared and all that and she was like I like you too and then asked me if she could call me her girlfriend and I said yes.”

“Aw Tina that’s awesome. I’m so proud and so happy for you.”, Roier hugged the pillow Tina had thrown in his face.

“I am proud of you too, Ro. You kissed a boy on the lips, that’s some brave shit.”

“Look at us getting our shit together and being gay. I just wish that we could be like normal couples. I want to tell everyone about him, but I can’t.”, his tone changed from happy to frustrated and he let out a sigh.

“I know, I get what you mean. I hate that we’re going to have to keep it a secret.”

“I feel like eventually I will come out. I already hate that it feels like I’m hiding Cellbit and that he’s just a friend but for now I think it’s better like that for now”, he sat up a bit more to blow his nose.

“Oh yeah about the whole hiding thing, you should be careful. Quackity came up to me today and I don’t know, he’s being odd.”

“When is he not odd?” Roier rolled his eyes.

“True but today he was even more weird. Asked me about Bagi and Cellbit and told me how handsome Cellbit is.”, Tina paused for a second.

“I feel like he’s up to something.”

Chapter Text

Roier continued to be sick for the rest of the week which meant him and Cellbit couldn’t really talk to each other. They did message back and forth but they both avoided the subject of their relationship, as they wanted to talk about that in real life, or at least that was the reason why Roier never said anything. Roier was pretty sure that Cellbit wanted to be in a relationship too, but he still thought that they should talk more about this.

Can you come in earlier on Monday?

I don’t think I can sit next to you for two hours without talking privately first

Of course

And so, the first thing Roier did when entered the school building on Monday, half an hour earlier than usually, was to go to the supply closet he had told Cellbit about. When he opened the door, he saw Cellbit already standing there, waiting for him. He seemed very nervous and tense and jumped a little as Roier opened the door. He quickly got inside, closing and locking the door behind him. Cellbit pushed the hair out of his face and looked at him, his eyes seemingly trying to read Roier’s facial expression. Roier just smiled at him warmly, he was also nervous but in an excited way because he knew where this conversation would lead.

“Hi”

“Hey”

Roier took a step towards Cellbit, who did the same and met him in the middle of the room. He reached a hand out to cradle Cellbit’s cheek and softly caress the skin there. They both smiled at each other before Cellbit was the one who connected their lips. Roier could feel Cellbit’s hands landing on his hips as he pulled him closer. The hand that previously was on his cheek moved to the back of Cellbit’s neck, also pulling him as close as possible. Cellbit’s lips were warm and soft. He sighed into the kiss in satisfaction.

The two separated after a while to catch their breaths, not putting too much distance between them and rather keeping their foreheads connected.

“I missed you.”

“I missed you too, gatinho”, Roier grinned, very satisfied with himself as Cellbit laughed quietly, seemingly a bit flustered before he whispered “Guapito” back.

While he was sick, he got bored one day and randomly asked Cellbit to teach him some Portuguese words. Among other things, Cellbit had told him the Portuguese version of Guapito and Roier immediately decided for himself that this was the perfect nickname, so he kept on calling Cellbit that over text. He even changed his contact on his phone to Gatinho. Seeing his reaction in real life was even better than over text.

The two of them stayed quiet for a bit, just catching their breath together and holding each other until Cellbit moved away a bit. Roier opened his eyes to look up at him, one of his hands was still holding onto the back of Cellbit’s neck. He brought up his other arm so that both other them were now resting over Cellbit’s shoulders, both hands playing with his hair as they were looking into each other’s eyes.

“We never talked about the whole feelings thing, did we?”

Roier laughed a little.
“The whole feelings thing. What a great start to the conversation.”

“I mean if you’re complaining, we can just continue kissing and never talk about it, if that’s what you want.”

Roier rolled his eyes at him and slightly pulled at the thin hair on the back of his neck.
“Obviously not dumbass.”

“Well go ahead then.”

“No, you go first. You wanted to talk about this, so you say it.”

“Oh, so you don’t want to talk about it? I see how it is, you’re only using me for kisses. You actually hate me.”

“Exactly, you got it.”

The two of them began laughing at their own antics. When they calmed down Cellbit cleared his throat.

“I like you. Like a lot.”, he said in the sincerest voice Roier had heard from him.

Roier smiled at him, completely in love. He obviously already knew that Cellbit liked him but hearing him say it out loud made his heart beat a little bit quicker. He felt so warm and safe in that moment as if they were in their own safe little bubble. It didn’t matter that they were doing this in a dimly lit supply closet that smelled like dirty water and probably had mold and spiders in it. Everything about this was perfect.

“I like you too.”, he whispered back.

“Awesome.”

Roier started to laugh again, softly hitting Cellbit’s chest while doing so. He felt him chuckle as well when his forehead touched his shoulder from bending over in laughter.

“You’re such a dumbass, do you know that? Awesome” , he mocked Cellbit while still laughing. Cellbit just continued laughing lightly as well while Roier tried to calm down. At some point he and started to comb through Roier’s hair again. He closed his eyes for a few seconds and just enjoyed the comforting feeling of Cellbit’s warm hand playing with his hair.

Roier took a deep breath before looking at Cellbit again.

“Okay I am serious again. This is a very meaningful and serious conversation.”

“Yes absolutely.”, Cellbit grinned at him.

“So do you want to be my boyfriend then?”, Roier decided to just go for it and not dance around it for much longer.

“I’d love to.”

“Awesome” , he mocked Cellbit again but was this time effectively shut up by Cellbit kissing him. Not that he would ever complain about that. They spend a few more minutes in the small room, just talking quietly and holding each other closely.

“Oh, by the way I forgot to tell you. My birthday is on Saturday, so we are celebrating on Friday, and I really wanted you to come. I’m planning on telling my friends about us. Tina wants to do the same.”

Cellbit grinned at him. “Bagi already told me about the party, of course I will be there.”, he pressed a kiss on his cheek.
Roier beamed at him and quickly pecked him on the lips before checking the time on his phone and picking up his bag.

“We need to go now, class starts in like 10 minutes and I still have to go to my locker.”

“Okay I will see you there, guapito.”

Roier was about to say goodbye as well and turn around to open the door when he remembered something.

“Oh yeah by the way, be careful around Quackity. He’s up to something, I don’t know what exactly, but he was really weird to Tina last week. We aren’t really on good terms to be honest.”

Cellbit looked a bit confused and also worried, but he just nodded. At some point he should tell him about his history with Quackity but for now, this had to be enough.

“See you in class, gatinho.”, he kissed Cellbit one last time before turning around and leaving the supply closet. He then walked straight to his locker, opening it up and getting the books he needed for the day.

“Hello there”, a voice to the side of him said.

Speaking of the devil, he thought as he looked over to where the voice had come from, already knowing who it was. He had heard it daily for a long time. He used to get excited about hearing this voice but now he just felt his whole body go tense.

“Quackity”, he said as neutral as possible, looking back at the inside of his locker.

“Is that how you great an old friend, Roier?”

“We are not friends. What do you want?”

“Oh nothing. I’m just waiting for someone.”

Roier rolled his eyes and was about to close his locker when he saw Cellbit walk by them to go to his locker too. Cellbit’s locker wasn’t that far from Roier’s, and it was right next to where Quackity was standing. Roier pretended like he was still looking for something in his locker, listening to what was going on beside him.

“Hi Cellbit!”, Quackity exclaimed loudly, turning his body away from Roier and towards Cellbit.

Cellbit quickly looked over Quackity’s shoulder at Roier, who just shrugged before pretending to be doing something again.

“Hey Quackity.”, Cellbit said, still in a friendly tone but clearly not as excited as Quackity.

“It’s been a while, how are you doing man?”

“Yeah, it was the weekend. I’m pretty good, and you?”, Cellbit was too nice for his own good, Roier thought. But realistically he knew that Cellbit had no idea what Quackity could be like, he had been pretty nice to Cellbit on his first few days so he had no reason to be suspicious of him.

“I am doing just fine, my friend. You look great by the way, did you do something different with your hair?”, Roier saw Quackity reach out to try and touch Cellbit’s hair but the latter avoided his hand by leaning back. He really had to force himself not to laugh at that. What a terrible attempt at flirting.

“Oh, thank you but uhm no, I didn’t change anything.”, he could hear the confusion in Cellbit’s voice.

“So, what are you doing this weekend? Any plans already?”, Quackity tried to smoothly change the topic, but it almost made things even more awkward.

“Yeah, I’m busy already.”

“Oh, what a shame. We should definitely hang out some time.”

“Yeah sure!”, out of the corner of his eye, Roier could tell that Cellbit was trying to move towards the classroom.

“Maybe we could go on a date?”

Roier looked over in surprise to see Quackity gripping Cellbit’s wrist quite tightly while waiting for an answer. Cellbit met Roier’s eyes again, looking very confused and then looking back at Quackity before pulling away his arm.

“Oh sorry, uhm I’m not interested in you in that way. Not… not romantically.”, he paused for a second. “Don’t you have a boyfriend anyways?”

Quackity didn’t answer and just turned around and stormed away without saying another word, leaving Cellbit in the hallway. Roier closed his locker and walked over to him.

“Are you okay?”, Roier said quietly, pulling Cellbit by his sleeve behind a corner. He took a look at his wrist, trying to check for any injuries but it seemed to be fine. Then he looked up and tried to scan Cellbit’s face to see if he was really okay.

“What the fuck was that? Yeah, I’m fine but that was so weird!?”

“I know right? He’s being so weird. You need to be careful.”, Roier looked to his left and right to see if anyone was looking at them, most students had already left for class. He quickly took Cellbit’s hand and squeezed it before letting go again.

“And you need to tell me what is going on between you two.”

“I will, I will. But not now.”

Cellbit nodded at him and the two turned around the corner again to walk to their classroom.

••••••••••••

Class went by smoothly. Quackity wasn’t there when they entered the classroom and didn’t show up for all of class, but Roier tried not to think about it too much. Which wasn’t that hard since he had the best distraction right next to him.

While him and Cellbit tried to not be as touchy and really tone down any affection as to not raise any suspicion from their classmates, they still exchanged small “accidental” touches. Like when they would both reach for the same pen or when Roier had to lean over to see what was written on the blackboard and their shoulders would touch. These little things were enough for Roier for now, but he knew that they couldn’t do this all year. He already had the urge to just grab and hold Cellbit’s hand, but he couldn’t.

On their break, him and Cellbit separated. While his boyfriend went to sit with his sister and the other Brazilians, Roier went to sit with Tina, Jaiden, Mariana, Foolish and surprisingly Etoiles. Everyone at their table was good friends with Etoiles but he would normally sit with the other French speakers in their year. But today he was sitting right next to Foolish, talking and laughing.

Foolish was listening, talking with him and even more surprisingly, laughing with him. The last time he saw Foolish, the other had been crying over the breakup with Roier’s cousin and now not even a week later, he was laughing and smiling with a French guy who was one of the biggest nerds Roier had ever met, respectfully. The two of them were sitting pretty closely as well, their shoulders almost touching and sometimes leaning against one another when they were laughing at something.

And not only was Foolish laughing and smiling, but he also actually looked a lot better than last time they had seen each other. He still had slight eye bags, but his hair was styled as usually, he was wearing clean clothes and definitely wasn’t as pale and almost grey as before. He didn’t look like he was about to cry any second and his whole posture and general aura was back to the confident and happy guy, they knew. If Roier didn’t know any better, he’d say that nothing out of the ordinary happened to him in the past few weeks.

He rose an eyebrow towards Tina as he was sitting down next to her, gesturing towards Etoiles and Foolish who were way too invested in their own conversation to even notice.

“What’s going on over there?”

“It’s a recent thing. A day or two after you got sick, they just showed up together.”

Roier spoke more quietly as he didn’t really want the two to hear him even though they really weren’t paying attention.

“Is he like trying to get in Foolish’s pants or something? I thought he doesn’t date?”

“He doesn’t and I don’t think he is. He genuinely seems to like him, as a very good friend. And they get along so well, Foolish is so happy. Let’s just let him have this, I think he needs this right now, he needs him right now.”, Tina whispered back.

Roier nodded. He was a bit suspicious as he didn’t want his friend to get hurt but Etoiles had good intentions from what Roier knew so he tried to push away thoughts that told him to intervene. The big smile on Foolish’s face was the only thing that mattered right now.

“So how are things going with you know who?”, Roier whispered to Tina who laughed a little at the nickname.

“Pretty good I would say. Lots of hand holding so far. And you and your you know who?”

“Lots of kisses.” Roier grinned back Tina and shoved her slightly when she made a face at him. They both looked over to the table where Bagi and Cellbit were sitting and watched them talk to each other for a few moments.

“Aren’t they just wonderful?”, Tina said in a dreamy tone. Roier chuckled a little bit but hummed in agreement. He looked back to his best friend and nudged her slightly to get her attention back.

“You were right, Quackity is definitely being weird. He asked Cellbit on a date earlier.”

Tina’s eyes widened. “A date? What about his supposed boyfriend?”

“That’s what he said too but Quackity didn’t say anything and just ran off sulking.”

“Weird.”

“Super weird.”

••••••••••••

Roier got the opportunity to talk to Foolish about what was going on with Etoiles the next day after they had class together. They still had a few more minutes before they had to be in their next class, so he used that time to talk to his friend.

“Hey, I noticed you and Etoiles got really close recently.”

“Yep”, Foolish nodded his head with the signature smile on his lips.

“Can I ask if there is something going on between you two?”

“Oh! You mean like romantically or something?”, Roier nodded quickly. “Nah it’s not like that. We are just friends. He just really gets me you know?”

Roier hummed in agreement.
“Okay good, I just wanted to make sure. I know it none of my business, but I don’t want anyone to hurt you again, that’s why I’m asking.”

“No need to worry, Ro. Etoiles is a good guy.”

Roier stopped himself from saying that Vegetta was a good guy too. He didn’t want to ruin this for Foolish and Etoiles was indeed a good person, Roier knew that. Recently they had gotten closer since they both enjoyed sports a lot. He was really funny and loyal and Roier definitely liked him, but you never know.

“Besides, even though he wants to pretend like he’s so mysterious and dangerous, he’s such a wholesome and sweet guy. He won’t do anything to me”, Foolish smiled at Roier. It reminded him of what he had thought about the day prior, the smile on his face is the most important thing.

“He seems to be good for you Foolish. You’re glowing.”

“I think so too. I feel a lot better. He’s very good at being a distraction.”

“Glad to hear that.”

“Oh, can I invite him to your party? I know it’s only supposed to be a few people, but I think he fits in with our group quite well. It’s okay if you say no though, it’s still your party.”

Roier hesitated for a second. Both him and Tina wanted to use the party as an opportunity to tell the rest of their friends about their new partners. Which was why only their closest friends and said partners were invited so far. Etoiles didn’t even know that Roier and Tina weren’t straight and also never dated.

“Depends Foolish. Can he keep a secret? Multiple secrets?”

Foolish nodded eagerly. “He can. He won’t tell a soul if we say that he can’t.”

“If you trust him, then I trust him too because I trust you, okay?”

“Okay, thanks Ro. You will not regret it.”

Right on cue, Etoiles came over to the two of them, throwing an arm around Foolish’s shoulder, pulling him close for a side hug. Foolish’s hand immediately landed on Etoiles’ hip and both of them smiled at each other.

“What’s up my bro? What are you guys talking about?”

“Oh, nothing really. Hey, Roier is celebrating his birthday on Friday, do you want to come?”

Etoiles looked at Roier for a second in surprise, he nodded at the French guy before he turned back to Foolish.

“Oh, social interactions with many people. I don’t know man.”

“We won’t be that many. It will just be mine and Tinas close friends. We will be 10 people maximum.”, Roier interjected.

Etoiles looked at him again. Him and Foolish were still holding each other closely. Etoiles seemed to think about it for a second while looking Roier up and down, possibly looking for any signs of him lying. Roier knew how this must look from Etoiles perspective. While Etoiles wasn’t necessary an outcast or someone who was bullied by others, he definitely wasn’t part of the popular crowd that Roier, unfortunately, belonged to. Not that Roier thought he’d want that anyways. But it was a bit weird for someone like Roier to invite Etoiles to his birthday party, even though the two were good friends already.

After thinking about it for a few seconds, Etoiles nodded.
“Okay sure, I will be there.”

Foolish made an excited noise and pulled Etoiles even closer to him into a real hug. He whispered something into his ear that made Etoiles laugh which Roier took as his cue to leave the two alone. He was still a bit confused over their relationship because they looked much closer than just friends, but their actions didn’t seem to have any romantic intentions behind it from what Roier could tell.

••••••••••••

On the day of his birthday, Roier’s whole family would be gone for the night. They were taking a trip to Roier’s grandparents and would come back together with them on Saturday. Meaning Roier had the whole house to himself and his friends. This also meant that Roier could bring Cellbit to his house for the first and maybe last time, which is exactly what they did after school.

Tina took Bagi to her parents apartment so that they could get ready together and because Tina lived closer to Roier’s. Roier knew that she was all nervous about it, even though she hadn’t said anything to him. He could tell by the way she was nervously tapping her leg all day. Her and Bagi would come over a bit earlier than the rest of their friends so that they could help with decorating and getting things ready. It would be the first time that all four of them were in the same room, which somehow made Roier nervous as well. He wanted to make a good impression on Bagi, now as her brothers boyfriend and not only some random guy.

He opened the front door to let him and Cellbit inside and then showed him around a little bit. They ended up in Roier’s room with Cellbit sitting on his bed while he was showing Cellbit what kind of outfit he was going to wear.

He decided to go for a black satin button up and some black wide legged dress pants. He was going to wear some make up as well and maybe add some jewelry.

“Guapito, you cannot wear that.”, Cellbit said in serious tone.

“Why not?”, Roier whined. “I love those pants. They make my ass look great.”

“Yeah, and that’s the problem. You’re going to look way too hot. I’m not going to be able to keep my hands off you tonight.”, Cellbit said in a joking tone.

“Maybe that’s the goal, gatinho.”, Roier winked at him before turning around to put the clothes back on the hanger.

Now it was Cellbit’s turn to show Roier what he was going to wear tonight. Cellbit had brought a duffel bag with him with everything he needed. He pulled out a black turtle neck and some black straight legged jeans. He also had some jewelry with him.

“Maybe I will let you do my make up tonight. I’m not sure yet.”

“No, you will look way too pretty with make up on. We can’t have that.”, he said, slightly mocking Cellbit’s tone from earlier.

“It will be your birthday present.”

“You will be my birthday present tonight?”, Roier wiggled his eyebrows at Cellbit who just laughed a little and put away his clothes again.

As he was doing so, Roier kept on thinking about the party and his thoughts wandered off to how his friends would react to him and Cellbit being on a relationship. They would probably be fine with it since they already knew that he was gay. Except Etoiles and Slimecicle, who Mariana was going to bring with the promise that he would keep his mouth shut. Roier still felt uneasy about both of them joining tonight. With Etoiles he at least had never heard him spread rumors or spill secrets, but he knew for a fact that Slimecicle loved gossip. But so, did Mariana, right? And he hadn’t told anyone about him being gay. But on the other hand, Mariana was Roier’s best friend after Tina. Slimecicle didn’t know Roier that well.

Roier kept on spiraling in his thoughts about how the evening could go and what he would do if the secret got out. He didn’t even notice that Cellbit was talking to him until he knelt down right in front of him and put his hands on his knees.

“Guapito, can you look at me?”

Roier zoned back in and looked Cellbit in the eyes. He just noticed that he had been biting his fingernails in an anxious habit. He pulled away his fingers from his mouth, wiping them on the dark blue bed sheets.

“Good. Are you okay? You zoned out on me.”

Roier nodded a little before grabbing Cellbit’s hands which were still resting on his knees. He squeezed both of them slightly.

“I’m just a bit worried about tonight. About Etoiles and Slimecicle.”

“Listen guapito, if you’re not ready to do it today with them being here then we do it some other time.”

“But I want to be able to hold your hand on m my birthday.”

“Well then we have no other choice but to trust them.”, Cellbit said as he stood up and sat next to him on the bed, still holding one of his hands.

“But I understand why you’re nervous. This is a big deal and it’s totally normal to be nervous. You’re the one who decides whether that nervousness will keep you from doing it or not.”, he pressed a kiss on the side of Roier’s head.

“Thank you, gatinho.”

A bit after that the two started rearranging the living room so that they would have more space for everyone and begin decorating the room and the kitchen. They also got the guest room ready since Bagi and Jaiden would sleep over. Cellbit would sleep over too, but he was going to sleep in Roier’s bed. Normally Tina would sleep over too but ever since the breakup, her parents were already not very happy with Tina going over to his house, and sleeping here was apparently too much to ask for, so her parents were going to get her some time after midnight.

About two hours before the rest of the group would arrive, Tina and Bagi rang the doorbell. Just like Cellbit and Roier, they were also wearing matching outfits. He took one look at Tina’s face and could immediately tell that something happened at her house. He rose an eyebrow to her when Bagi wasn’t looking, and she just blushed a bit and mouthed “later” to him.

Something similar seemed to be going on between the twins as Cellbit nudged him and whispered into his ear:

"Something happened between them."

Roier nodded in agreement before the four of them started decorating the living room and getting some snacks ready. When they were done, they settled on the couch for a bit. Roier was resting against Cellbit with his back against his chest, playing with his hands while Tina had her legs thrown over Bagi’s lap.

“You know what’s really annoying?”, Roier suddenly interrupted the conversation the others were having.

“What? You? We know that.”, Tina answered, he stuck out his tongue in a childish manner.

“No, the fact that our anniversaries are going to be so close to one another. There’s only like a few days in-between.”

“Wait, that’s right. But we were first! You guys could’ve waited a bit longer.”, Bagi exclaimed, pointing at them accusingly.

“What!? We were first! Just because we didn’t make it official immediately.”, Cellbit said. The two bickered in Portuguese for a little, Roier could only understand a few words because they were talking too quickly but the basis of the argument was that the other one was dumb. He met Tina’s gaze and the two of them smiled at each other, it was oddly domestic hanging out like this with their partners.

Half an hour before the rest arrived, Roier and Cellbit got ready separately. Roier did his make up while Cellbit put on his outfit. He left the top three buttons open, giving everyone a good look on his chest but without revealing too much. Cellbit seemed to me very happy with that decision as his eyes immediately diverted to that area when he first saw him. He then did Cellbit’s make up a little. He only put on a bit of foundation, a bit of contouring and some light eyeshadow that his eyes stand out more.

“You look so cute, gatinho. Like a prince.”, Roier stood in front of his boyfriend, fixing his hair for him, his hands landing on his shoulders as he was done and inspecting his work.

“All because of you, guapito”, Cellbit kissed him softly.

“No, you’re already so handsome.”

“You guys are so adorable, it’s disgusting.” Tina stood in the doorway to the bathroom, interrupting them. “I just wanted to tell you that Foolish just pulled in the driveway.”

Roier nodded before taking one last deep breath and then letting go of Cellbit’s shoulders. The latter gave him a last kiss on the forehead before the two of them went downstairs.

In the next hour, everyone slowly showed up with Foolish, Etoiles and Jaiden being the most on time, surprisingly and Mariana and Slimecicle as always being fashionably late.

Once everyone was finally settled in Roier turned down the music which had been playing and clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention.

“Hey guys I just have something to say, well not only me but well there is a reason why I invited you guys here. Not only because it’s my birthday tomorrow but also because I have something to tell you guys.”, he surprisingly made it through without stuttering once. He looked to his side where Cellbit was sitting and smiling at him warmly.

“Well, most of you already know this but for Etoiles and Slimecicle, I am gay. I’ve always liked guys. And none of you know this but I am dating Cellbit.”, he said while grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and holding onto it as if his whole life depended on it.

Etoiles and Slimecicle looked equally as confused and didn’t seem to know what to say. Jaiden was the first one who jumped up with a squeal to ran over to Roier and hug him tightly.

“I’m so happy for you! Congratulations!!”

He thanked her quietly until she was pushed away by Foolish and then everyone else. They all congratulated him and Cellbit and hugged either just Roier or the both of them. A few threats were spoken about what would happen if Cellbit hurt Roier but overall, everyone was really supportive. The only ones who didn’t get up were Etoiles and Slimecicle who were still sitting on the sofa as if they were frozen in time. Before they could say anything, Tina cleared her throat and stood up.

“Yeah, since we are already doing this, I have also something to say. This is about to be a similar story but as most of you know, I am a lesbian and I am also dating someone now.”, she looked over at Bagi. “And it’s Bagi.”

The same thing that happened to Roier, now happened to Tina with the difference that Foolish was quicker this time and pushed Jaiden away softly to hug her first.

When they were all done congratulating, everyone's eyes were on Etoiles and Slimecicle. The latter broke the silence first.

“Well, I honestly don’t know what to say, I did not expect this but I’m really happy for you guys. I obviously accept you guys the way you are, I’d be stupid to not do that. Congrats!”

After he was done Etoiles spoke up.

“Yeah, I also did not expect this from today but I’m also very happy for all of you. I kind of know what it’s like when people have a different expectation of you and how scary it is to have to come out even to your close friends. Thank you for trusting me with this. Congratulations and if anyone ever bothers you, you know where I am.”, he grinned.

“Thank you, guys, so much. I hate that I need to say this, but I just want to make sure everyone knows that this can’t be known, under no circumstances, until me and Tina officially decide to come out. As far as you guys know, we are straight. No one else can know.”

Everyone made agreeing noises and nodded their heads and Roier let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

After that, the party continued without any further interruptions. He spent most of his time glued to his boyfriend’s side, just happy to be able to act like a couple with him. Cellbit didn’t seem to mind though, he held Roier close all night and seemed quite happy with that.

Chapter Text

Going over to Tina’s place for the first time made Bagi really nervous. Her parents weren’t even there as they were still at work but somehow, she still felt a nervous but excited energy build up in her chest. The past week had been pretty eventful with Roier coming back and immediately becoming Cellbit’s boyfriend and then the secret meetings she and Tina had in different classrooms, supply closets or the library where they would just hold hands and maybe kiss each other on the cheek or hug each other but generally just spending time together and enjoying the others company. Everything was sweet and lovely and just perfect.

Obviously Bagi hated having to hide everything and not being able to hold her girlfriend’s hands out in public, but she knew that Tina felt the same. There was no way to change that right now without Tina risking destroying her relationship with her parents and potentially being kicked out of the house. It was just the way it was going to be for a while and Bagi could accept that for now. For now, the secrecy made everything kind of exciting. It felt like she was doing something dangerous when she was really just peppering her girlfriend’s face with kisses.

They still had yet to kiss for the first time, but Bagi was absolutely fine with that. She enjoyed the way that their relationship was at the moment on a physical level. There had only been one moment so far where Tina told her that she didn’t want to be touched at the moment and that was because she had a stressful day and felt agitated.

“I’m sorry, please don’t touch me right now or I feel like I will either scream or cry.”

Bagi put her hands under her thighs and watched Tina pace around in the empty classroom for a bit while she was sitting on a table.

“That’s okay, do you want to talk about it?”

This ended with Tina ranting about her terrible day for the rest of break. The summary was basically that she was on her period and a teacher refused to let her use the toilet and also a few younger students were annoying her about the breakup again. Bagi just listened to her. As they were done, Tina gave her a quick hug and thanked her.

"No need to thank me. I will always listen to you, love."

Her brother also seemed to be glowing and as happy as she hadn’t seen him in a while. His relationship with Roier seemed to be going swimmingly. Bagi had caught them kissing in a classroom once when she was looking for Tina. Roier was sitting on a table while Cellbit was standing between his legs, it was really adorable. She has told them to be careful and shut the door properly before moving on to find her girlfriend.

===============

When Tina opened the door to the apartment her parents and herself lived in, Bagi had a few expectations, but a minimalist white furniture style wasn’t one of them. She honestly felt a bit like in a hospital or in a doctor’s office. It reminded her a lot of what Cellbit’s room used to look like but he changed for the better recently and finally unpacked some of his stuff and even asked for their parents to buy him a carpet and some other colorful decorations.

Tina and her parents’ apartment had white walls, white furniture, almost no decorations and a parquet floor. There was no carpet or flowers. The blinds were also white. It looked way too clean and sanitary in Bagi’s opinion.

“I know what you’re probably thinking. This looks like a hospital.”

“I mean a little bit, but it has something to it.”, she tried to be nice about it. Insulting the way someone else’s home looked was not the way her parents taught her.

“You don’t have to lie to me. It’s awful, I know. My parents are doctors, not interior designers. And apparently, they have no taste at all.”

“Yeah, it’s a bit depressing to be honest.”

“It’s very depressing. But okay come on, my room is a lot better.”

Tina took her hand and dragged her along into her room. Her room was bit smaller than Bagi’s own room but it was very cozy. The bed, the dresser and her desk were all in different shades of a beige brownish color. There was a dark red armchair next to a mirror and under a bookshelf that was fixated on the wall. A few plants were on the window sills and a fairy lights hung from the ceiling. A few pictures of Tina and her friends were on the walls and a mirror was leaning against om of the walls as well. Baby pink blinds were hanging to the side of each window. It was cozy and yet very neat and tidy.

“It’s very cute in here, I like it.”

Tina smiled at her. “I’m glad you do, I like it here too. It’s the only place in this flat that is bearable.”

Bagi sat down next to Tina on her bed as the latter took a look at the watch on her wrist.

“We have about an hour to get ready before my dad is coming to pick us up.”

“An hour is enough time.”

Tina nodded and Bagi could feel her hesitating as she wanted to say something else. She looked at her curiously.

“Tell me.”, Tina looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. “I can tell that you want to say something, go ahead.”

“Can I do your make up?”, her cheeks were slightly flushed and Bagi could help but smile brightly.

“Of course you can. Do you want to do it now or after I changed?”

“I think after is better. You can change in here, I will go and change in the bathroom.”, Tina stood up and grabbed a bundle of clothes that he had put on her armchair before she quickly left the room.

Bagi smiled to herself before getting her clothes out as well. For the party she was wearing a black jumpsuit that showed a bit more skin than she would usually show. It showed a bit of her chest and had see-through mesh sleeves. The mesh fabric had little glitter stones all over them. It was part of the few clothes in her closet that diverted completely from her usual style, but she felt very good in them. She also put on a few of her rings and a necklace and some silver earrings that matched the glitter stones on the jumpsuit.

After she was done putting on her jumpsuit and her accessories, she sat on Tina’s bed, waiting for her to come back. She used the time to take a better look at the small room. She noticed that just like it’s owner, the room seemed to be ordinary and maybe even inconspicuous but once you took the time to really look at it, there were many little details and lots of emotions hidden in it.

For example, between the plants on the window sills was a ceramic pot that looked a cat head which was used as a flower pot. Bagi knew this was made by Foolish as she watched him make it in their arts class. On the back of her door was a painting of a group of people dressed up as different animals. She could tell that this was made by Jaiden since she recognized the art style. There was also a painting seemingly made a by a child with two people standing next to each other, one taller than the other. Bagi didn’t know who this was from, but Tina seemed to treasure it a lot as she put it on her desk. Lots of different things like these were scattered around the room which Bagi really loved.

At some point Tina knocked at the door. “Are you ready? Can I come in?”, she asked behind the door.

“Yep”

Tina opened the door and slipped inside the room. For a few seconds, the two of them were kind of just staring at each other.

She was wearing a shorter black dress with puffy see-through sleeves which contoured her waist and then flowed down until her mid-thigh. She was wearing a golden necklace and some longer earrings. She looked absolutely gorgeous. She left her hair open, spilling over her shoulders down to her waist. Her make-up was done already, black eyeshadow and golden eyeliner that matched the rest of her outfit.

“You look beautiful”

“You look gorgeous”

Both of them spoke at the same time, giggling afterwards.

“No, this dress actually fits you so perfectly. You look even more like a fairy than usually.”

Tina laughed a little, blushing slightly. “A fairy?”

“Yes, you always look like a beautiful fairy.”

“Says the one that looks like a literal angel.”

Bagi blushed a little and took Tina’s hand to press a kiss on the back of it. “I am so lucky.”

“So am I.”, Tina whispered back. The two of them shared a look for a few seconds before Tina broke out of her trance.

“Okay right, the makeup. Do you have any preference? Or any ideas of what you want to do?”

“No, you can just go crazy with what you want to do. I trust you completely, you’re good at make-up.”

“Thank you.”, Tina tucked her hair behind her ears in a flustered manner before clearing her throat.

“Is it okay if you lie down and I sit on your legs?”, she tried to turn her face in time, but Bagi could see her blushing fiercely.

“More than okay.”, Bagi grinned at her before lying down on Tina’s bed while she was grabbing her makeup bag. She leaned against Tina’s pillow and folded her hands on her stomach.

After getting her things ready, Tina hesitantly climbed on the bed before carefully settling on Bagi’s thighs.

“Is this, okay? Am I too heavy?”, Tina looked her in the eyes, slightly worried.

“Yes, I’m absolutely okay, I won’t break.”, she raised her hands before putting them on Tina’s thighs, keeping eye contact to make sure her girlfriend was okay with that. Tina nodded slightly as Bagi pulled her a bit more forward so that she was sitting more on her hips and lower stomach than on her thighs.

“That’s better.”, she said and slowly started drawing circles with her thumb on Tina’s thighs. Tina smiled at her warmly before she then leaned forward to start applying the make-up.

Bagi immediately closed her eyes, as she didn’t want to stare down at Tina’s cleavage which was unfortunately just right in her face when Tina leaned forward. And also, because she didn’t want to awkwardly look somewhere else, so closing her eyes it was.

“You can keep your eyes open. I’m not going near them yet.”

“I know but I don’t want to stare at your boobs, love.”, Bagi mumbled back.

Tina laughed lightly. “Thank you that’s very considerate of you. You are my girlfriend though so it would be fine.”

“I know but I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable.”

A short silence followed after that before she felt a kiss on her forehead and then a quiet, “You’re the best.” from Tina. Bagi smiled more to herself than to her girlfriend.

At some point she opened her eyes again and just watched Tina’s face, just admiring her beauty. While she was skillfully applying some contouring, a hair strand got loose, before Tina could tuck it behind her ear again, Bagi reached out and did it for her. Tina was apparently so focused that she hadn’t noticed that Bagi had opened her eyes again, which was why she flinched slightly as she noticed Bagi's movement. They locked eyes again and just stayed like that for a while before Tina continued quietly.

After that more silence followed since Tina was very concentrated and Bagi was almost falling asleep as she had closed her eyes again until she heard Tina quietly start talking again.

“Bagi?”

“Hm?”

“Can I kiss you?”

Bagi’s heart skipped a beat and for a second, time stopped. She opened her eyes to look directly into Tina’s. She could see the worry on her face and yet, she was the one asking her for a kiss. She didn’t think that this would happen so quickly. After their talk last week, Bagi was sure that it would take Tina a while to take the next step but here they were. Bagi nodded quickly, trying to hold back the amount of excitement that just rushed through her body.

“Of course you can.”

She then closed her eyes again as Tina’s face moved closer to hers. She felt Tina’s gentle fingers against her jaw, tilting her face a little more upwards and then she could feel a nose brushing her cheek and a warm breath on her lips. A second later she could feel a pair of soft lips against her own.

Tina’s other hand was resting on her shoulder, while both of Bagi’s hands were still holding onto Tina’s hips and thigh, caressing them softly. She let Tina have full control and didn’t move at all until Tina would move. She just enjoyed the warmth that spread through her body as soon as their lips touched.

She had kissed other girls before but never had she felt this heavy comforting warmth engulfing her whole body before. It felt like a warm blanket wrapped itself around her heart on a cold winter day. Like drinking tea while it was snowing outside. Or like sitting in front of a fireplace. It was a cozy and somehow familiar warmth.

After a few moments of neither of them moving, Tina began slowly moving her lips against Bagi’s. She just copied what Tina was doing, still giving her full control over what was happening. Tina’s hand on her shoulder was now pressed against the wall next to Bagi’s head just so that Tina wouldn’t fall on top of her.

The kiss tasted sweet like the baked apple tea Bagi would drink around Christmas time. It was innocent and delicate as the flowers that stood on the windowsills. She realized in that moment that she could stay like this forever. Just kissing her girlfriend until they both couldn’t breathe anymore sounded like the most wonderful thing in the world to her.

At the same time Bagi knew that this might be the last time that they ever kissed. If Tina didn’t like the kiss, then she would never ever force her to kiss her again, even with how heavenly good it felt. And somehow Bagi was okay with that. If this was their one and only kiss and she would never get to kiss anyone else again then she was fine with that.

Because she already knew that Tina was going to be the love of her life. It might sound silly since they’ve only been dating for a few weeks but in her head, she has already decided that she was head over heels in love with that beautiful girl sitting on top of her right now. Everything about her made her heart skip a beat and just being around her made her happy.

She used to think of herself of being someone who needs loads of physical affection from their partner but when thinking about a future with Tina, oddly enough she was fine just exist next to her. She didn’t need her physical affection to know that Tina liked her. The way her girlfriend talked to her and complimented her was already enough, but Tina was really good at little acts of service and gifts. Just this week she had folded little origami flowers and a butterfly for her just because she wanted to. And while they sat next to each other in Spanish class, Tina sharpened all of Bagi’s pens just because.

It was these little things like these that made Bagi helplessly fall in love, and she couldn’t do anything else but hope that Tina felt the same about her. Sure, they were already girlfriends and she knew that Tina liked her but falling in love was different than just liking someone.

A soft smile against her lips pulled her back into reality and made Bagi smile as well and ultimately making them separate as they both could stop smiling. Tina rested her forehead against Bagi’s. She opened her eyes.

“How do you feel?”, she whispered, trying not to break the relaxing atmosphere around them.

“Wonderful. Like I’m going to float away.”, Tina replied in a similar quiet voice.

“Well don’t, I kind of need you down here.”, Tina giggled a little at that.

“You better hold onto me then.”

“I will never let you go.”, she whispered against Tina’s lips before connecting their lips once more for a small kiss.
They exchanged a few more innocent kisses before Tina sat up again, clearing her throat and pulling out her eyeliner from her make up bag.

“Okay we don’t have much time left. Let’s finish getting ready.”

Bagi reached forwards to brush a few loose hair strands out of Tina’s face. She let her hand rest against Tina’s cheek for a brief moment. She could feel Tina lean against her hand for a split second.

“Don’t you distract me again, you’re way too good at that.”

“Oops, so sorry.”, Bagi pretended to apologize before taking her hand back and grinning at her. Tina rolled her eyes playfully before returning her focus back to the eyeliner in her hand.

===============

A few hours later, the two of them were standing in front of Roier’s house, waiting for the someone to open the door. When Roier let them in, Bagi immediately locked eyes with her brother who was standing right behind his boyfriend and somehow, he immediately knew that something had happened.

As they entered the house Cellbit raised an eyebrow, silently asking her what was going on. Bagi shock her head slightly to tell him that they’d talk about it later, not now.

She noticed something similar going on between Tina and Roier. Ever since the two broke up, Bagi noticed that the relationship between the two of them was much more similar to her and her brother’s than to anyone who was every dating. Which made sense considering that they were never dating in the first place, but it was still interesting to observe.

During the preparations for the party, for the first time Bagi could observe the way that Roier and her brother acted towards to each other. The two times where she had caught them kissing didn’t really count as it happened way too quickly.

Watching them be around each other without having to pretend to not be madly in love with one another was very interesting though. She could tell by the way her brother looked at Roier that he was just as in love with him as she was with Tina. They were basically glued to each other’s side, never leaving for more than just a few seconds. And somehow, they were always touching the other in some way.

She could also see just how happy Cellbit was. She had already noticed his change in mood recently but watching him with a huge smile or grin on his face while looking at his boyfriend, proved her right once again. She also saw that Roier looked at him with the same ear-to-ear smile on his face. They were absolutely adorable.

When they took a break on the sofa after preparing everything, just to chat a bit, her and Cellbit looked eyes from opposite ends of the sofa. They smiled at each other with a knowing look. They could stay like this forever. Tina had her legs on her lap, and she was drawing different patterns with her fingers while Roier was playing with her brothers hands. The four of them were chatting about how their last week had been and shared a few spots where they could meet up in secret.

Bagi wished that they didn’t have to do that and act like they were doing right now in public. But she obviously could understand the fear that Roier and Tina felt. Her and Cellbit were incredibly lucky, both of their parents had been very accepting and supportive of them and their sexuality. She knew that not everyone was as lucky, but it still sucked to be a secret.

“Would you guys be fine with our parents knowing? They don’t know any other parents in the city and even if they did, they can keep secrets.”, Cellbit suddenly suggested. She hummed in agreement. Tina and Roier exchanged a look, communicating silently.

“You don’t have to answer right now if you want to think about it, but I think there are some benefits. We wouldn’t have to hide when we’re at our house.”, Bagi continued.

“Let me think about it first. But you are right, that would be nice.”, Roier said, and Tina nodded.

A bit later, Cellbit and Roier went upstairs to finish getting ready for the party. Her and Tina stayed behind on the sofa, leaning against each other with Tina’s legs still thrown over hers.

“Aren’t they cute?”, Tina said with her eyes following the two boys as they went upstairs.

“Yeah, it’s awful.”, Bagi said, pretending to be annoyed.

“They look so happy”

“They really do. I can’t wait for Roier’s reaction to Cellbit’s gift.”

“Wait, what is he giving him?”

Bagi shook her head. “I can’t tell you. You will find out soon enough.”

“That’s so unfair.”, Tina sulked lightly and Bagi quickly pressed a kiss on her cheek.

“Stop pouting. I’m sure you will be the first one to find out.”, Tina huffed a little before leaning back against her.

After officially getting invited, Cellbit had come over to Bagi’s room in the evening, asking her for her opinion on Roier’s gift. He was going to give it to him at some point anyways, but it just fit time wise. He was worried that it might be too rushed, but she could calm his nerves by telling him that if he thought it was right, that he should do it. She even helped him with what he should say when giving him the gift. She really hoped that her brother wouldn’t chicken out.

As for herself, after talking to Tina about it, she had gotten him a bottle of black nail polish and some sweets. Tina told him that he always wanted to wear nail polish, but he was afraid of asking his mom for some and at the same time too lazy to buy it himself. So hopefully he would like her gift as well. Tina was gifting him a necklace since he broke his old one and new eyeliner as he was running out and maybe some other stuff, but Bagi wasn’t sure. Tina had only told her about the first two things, but her gift bag was way too big for only these two things.

They separated when they heard a car pull up outside and the headlight shone through the window. Tina went upstairs to get the boys while Bagi opened the door for Foolish, Etoiles and Jaiden. She had only ever talked to Jaiden in sports and arts and just a little bit to Foolish. She had seen Etoiles before, he wasn’t that easy to miss with his platinum blonde, almost white silverish hair. She knew that him and her brother had talked a few times before. According to him and pretty much everyone else, he was incredibly smart but also really athletic, he sounded like a nice guy from her brothers stories.

“Hi Bagi!”, Jaiden hugged her as a greeting before walking past her inside the house. She was wearing a longer dark blue dress.

“Bagi! Hola!”, Foolish gave her a high-five and followed her. Foolish was just simply in white shirt with black pants and his blonde hair in a bun.

“Hello! I’m Etoiles.”, the blonde introduced himself. Etoiles was wearing a white shirt and some suspenders with black jeans.

“Hey Etoiles, I’m Bagi, Cellbit’s sister.”, they shook hands with a smile before Etoiles followed Jaiden and Foolish.

===============

After Roier and Tina had come out to their friends, Bagi spent the rest of the evening mostly next to her girlfriend and talking to others but also observing the people around her. She was really curious in the relationship between Etoiles and Foolish. She has noticed how the two of them had gotten closer, but she was very surprised seeing just how close they’ve gotten. They were sitting very closely together for the whole evening and would always follow around one another. She couldn’t really tell what was going on, but she felt like she didn’t know either of them well enough to ask them about it.

At some point on the evening , Cellbit gestured Bagi to follow him before standing up and leaving the living room. She patted her girlfriend’s legs.

“Gotta go love. My annoying brother wants something from me. I’ll be right back.”, before kissing her on the cheek and then leaving her to talk to Foolish and Etoiles and following her brother who went into the kitchen, leaning against the counter.

“So, what happened between you two?”

Bagi grinned, rolling her eyes a little before leaning on the counter opposite of him.

“We kissed.”

Cellbit gasped dramatically.

“No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, we did.”, she nodded with a smug smile on her face.

“Look at you, kissing your girlfriend. I’m so proud.”, he wiped away imaginary tears from the corners of his eyes. Bagi lightly kicked him against his shin before laughing with him.

“You’re giving him your gift, right?”, she said in a low voice just in case Roier was near them listening.

Cellbit let out a stressed sigh. “Yeah, but probably later when we’re alone. I don’t want him to feel pressured into accepting it.”

Bagi nodded and patted her brother on the shoulder in encouragement. “You can do it.”

Right before midnight, her and Tina went into the kitchen to light up the candles on the cake that Tina had made the day before. They carefully light all of them before walking back into the living room as the clock hit midnight so that Roier could blow out the candles. He did just that while holding Cellbit’s hands and kissing him quickly after he was done with the candles.

They then all shared the cake while Roier was unpacking everyone's gifts. He got lots of sweets from Brazil, France and America as well as some other things. He was very happy with Bagi’s present and immediately declared that he will wear the nail polish on Monday. He loved Tina’s presents which also included a sweatshirt with his favorite basketball player’s number on it.

When it was Cellbit’s turn to give him a present, he gave Roier a blue marker. None of them knew why but Roier seemed to get the reference immediately and laughed out loud before pressing a kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek. Tina had her head rested on Bagi’s shoulder, but she sat up after watching their little exchange.

“Wait why couldn’t you tell me about a marker?”

Bagi whispered into her ear.

“Because there’s another present.”

Chapter Text

Around 3am almost everyone was gone. Tina and Bagi had their dramatic goodbye where they pretended like they were never going to see each other again. Foolish and Etoiles left together, going back to Foolish’s house, making everyone else suspicious again about their relationship. Roier had told him that he was still pretty worried about Foolish, even though he had told him that there was nothing going on between them. Cellbit tried to calm his boyfriend’s worries a little by telling him to trust his friend, but he could still understand why he was worried.

Jaiden and Bagi were the only ones who would also stay over and so the four of them cleaned up the living room and the kitchen a little before going to bed. The girls shared a bed in the guest room while Roier pulled Cellbit along with him into his bedroom.

Roier turned to his closet, presumably pulling out his pajamas as Cellbit walked over to his bed, sitting down while nervously biting his lip. His boyfriend was talking about how he was already dreading the next day with his grandparents and how he really disliked them, but Cellbit wasn’t really listening as felt like he was about to die from nervousness.

“Roier?”

His boyfriend stopped his quick ranting and peaked his head out from behind the closet door.

“Can you- Can you come here? I- I have something for you.”, he said while patting the space next to him on the bed.

“Another gift?” Roier raised an eyebrow as he walked over to him and sat down. Their knees were touching as they sat closely to each other.

“Yes, I wanted to give you this while we’re on our own.”

Roier looked at him skeptically, clearly confused about what was about to happen.

“It’s not like that. Okay. Let me explain first.”

He took a deep shaky breath and wiped his hands on his pants as he could feel them getting sweaty and shaky. Roier grabbed one of his hands and squeezed it slightly, giving him an encouraging nod to go on.

“Okay so there is this Brazilian tradition when you’re dating- and not every couple does it and- and it’s not like you’re offending Brazilian culture or something if you don’t want to do it. It’s really okay if you say no but-“, he interrupted himself before sighing.

“It’s a ring. A- A promise ring. We call it anel de compromisso”, he pulled out a small dark blue box out of his left pocket, where it had been all evening. He looked down at it, running his thumbs over the corners of the box, not able to keep on looking at Roier while continuing to talk.

“It doesn’t mean that you have to marry me or anything like that. It just means that you’re taken and that we are serious about our relationship, if you- if you are, I mean. I am. I thought it would be cool because you can’t really say openly that you’re dating me but-“, he sighed again, annoyed at himself with how shaky his voice sounded.

“But you can wear the ring. I have one too! There’s two in the box.”, he put the box into Roier’s hands.

“If you want to be safe, you can also wear it on a chain. Or- or not at all and just keep it until you’re able to wear it outside. Or if you think this is stupid you can just give it back to me, I don’t mind.”, he would definitely mind it a little bit but he didn’t want to admit that. And realistically he knew that he just had to accept it if Roier didn’t want to wear it, for whatever reason. He would never force him.

Roier had just silently been listening to him without interrupting him, just holding one of his hands and now holding the box in the other. When Cellbit was done, he looked up again at his boyfriend, seeing him stare at him already with an unreadable expression on his face. He then noticed tears in his eyes.

“What do you think?”, he anxiously asked.

“Oh Cellbit.”, Roier whispered, his voice breaking a bit.

He still wasn’t sure if that was something good or bad but the second Roier grabbed his face to kiss him, he decided that it was probably good. They exchanged a few sweet kisses for a bit before Roier pulled away and leaned his forehead against Cellbit’s, holding the little box between them.

“I love it.”, Roier whispered, sniffing quietly.

“I was going to give it to you at some point anyway, but I thought today is the perfect time.”

Roier opened the box to reveal two simple silver rings sitting on a black cushion. He picked one of the out of the box and sat the box down onto his bed.

“What hand do you put it on?”

“The right one.”

Roier grabbed Cellbit’s right hand to put on the ring on his ring finger. Cellbit then grabbed Roier’s right hand to do the same. Roier then interlocked their hands, looking at them as their rings touched.

“I’m going to wear it on a necklace for now I think.”

Cellbit nodded. “And I will wear it on my fingers so everyone will know that I am taken.”

“And I will know that it’s me you belong too.”, Roier pressed a kiss on his cheek.

“Thank you, gatinho. This is the best gift ever.”

“Only the best for you, guapito.”

Soon after that, the two of them got ready for bed, neither of them had a problem with changing in the same room as they were just taking off their pants and putting on a different shirt. Roier was done first and crawled under the blanket, watching him as he folded his clothes neatly on the chair before tiptoeing his way over to the bed as well.

He climbed over Roier to lay between him and the wall and then scooted under the blanket as well. The two of them just laid next to each other on their backs for a second before Roier turned towards him, throwing one arm over his torso and resting his head between his shoulder and chest.

“Is that okay?”, Roier asked.

“Absolutely.”, he wrapped right arm around Roier shoulder. His hand instinctively landed in his hair, he could feel Roier chuckling at that.

“Good night, guapito.”

“Good night, gatinho.”
••••••••••••
It took Pac approximately 30 seconds until the noticed the ring on Cellbit’s finger after he sat down for lunch on Monday. He hadn’t seen Roier yet because their classes didn’t line up, but he caught a glimpse of him on his way to the table where the others were sitting. He couldn’t tell if he was actually wearing the necklace with the ring like he promised. Not that he would be mad if he decided to not wear it, but he did admit that he would be a bit disappointed.

“Woah! You’re wearing a ring? Cellbo, you’re dating someone?”, Pac exclaimed loudly, immediately being shushed by Guaxinim and Mike who then turned to Cellbit too. The three of them looked at him expectantly. Felps was sleeping on the table as always and Bagi wasn’t there yet. Cellbit was guessing that she went to see Tina as he couldn’t spot the latter in the cafeteria either.

“Yep”, he answered with a smile on his face. It felt way too good to be able to say that. Even though he couldn’t tell them who he was dating, the fact that people knew now that he was dating someone was enough for him for now.

He watched Guaxinim’s and Pac’s faces fall.

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Guaxinim groaned as he leaned forwards, letting his head hit the table.

“Please tell me you’re joking.”, Pac added, holding his head in his hands.

“I’m not?”, he answered confused. For a second, he was afraid that his friends might not be as accepting as he thought. Which didn’t make any sense because they were gay themselves, but he couldn’t think of any other reason why they would react like that.

Mike started laughing so hard that he almost fell from his chair. He hit the table with his flat hand, waking up Felps in the process, who looked up for a second with a dazed and confused look before lying down again. Mike laughed even harder when seeing Pac’s and Guaxinim’s faces. They both started to get out their wallets, grumbling under their breaths and handed Mike some money.

“Wait, what’s going on?”, he asked very confused, watching Mike trying to catch his breath. He gathered now that his friends who were very much gay were indeed not homophobic. Something else was going on. Both Pac and Guaxinim refused to look at him. “Guys?”

After doing some exaggerated breaths through the nose and out the mouth while clutching his chest like an old lady would clutch her pearls, Mike was finally able to breathe normally again and cleared his throat.

“So basically, these two idiots made a bet that you wouldn’t be able to find a partner before they were dating their crushes. Well, I bet against that because duh, you’re handsome as fuck and they are absolute losers.”, he paused to grin proudly.

“And I won. So, thank you Cellbit, I am now richer than before.”

The other two groaned again when he started laughing at that as well. At least he calmed down quicker than Mike.

“Wait but I thought things were going well for you guys? Didn’t Fit ask you out on a date Pac? And Guaxinim I thought you were going to tell him about the flirting thing?”

“Yeah, I did but he didn’t really take me seriously and I was too embarrassed to say something again.”, Guaxinim groaned while rubbing his face.

“And for me, well we only said it counts if you’re officially in a relationship.”, Pac sighed before he suddenly seemed to realize something.

“Wait you haven’t told us who it is. Who are you dating? It must be someone in our year, right?”, he placed his hands on the table, leaning forwards. Cellbit knew the look on his face all too well. It was the look he always had when he was talking about gossip or finding out new gossip.

He shook his head. “I can’t tell you.”

“Why not? Come on at least give us a hint.”, Pac pouted, putting on his puppy eyes that Cellbit knew always worked with Fit.

“Because I can’t, and I won’t. Drop it guys.”, his tone switched to serious and fortunately both Pac and Guaxinim noticed that as well and stopped pressing him about it.

“Okay fair but do you have any tips? Like you’ve been here for what, three months and you have a boyfriend. We’ve been trying for ages.”, Guaxinim slightly changed the topic. Mike watched the whole exchange, seemingly still very amused at Pac and Guaxinim’s desperation.

Cellbit smiled smugly, more to himself than to the other two. “Well, I guess I got lucky.”
••••••••••••
Later on, he finally met with Roier in an empty classroom. They still hadn’t had any classes together, but Roier put a little note in his locker which said to meet him in this specific classroom that they knew barely got used and was always open. Roier was already sitting on one of the desks, waiting for him. He closed the door behind him, locking it.

“Hey, guapito.”

“Gatinho.”

Cellbit walked over to him, stopping between his legs. He gave him a quick kiss before hugging him and burying his face in the section between his shoulder neck, taking a deep breath and closing his eyes for a second.

“Tired?”

He hummed in agreement as one of Roier’s hands found its way into his hair and started to caress it softly while the other one was holding him closely. As Cellbit pressed his face closer into Roier’s shoulder, he noticed something cold and metallic touching his face. Confused, he pulled back to see what it was. It was a necklace.

“You’re wearing the ring?”

Roier nodded shyly, pulling out the ring which was on the necklace from under his shirt. He reached out to touch it in amazement, almost believing that he was in a dream. Obviously Roier told him that he liked it but for some reason, Cellbit still had a hard time believing that he would actually wear it.

“You’re wearing the ring too, gatinho.”, Roier took his hand into both of his, hold it while staring at the ring.

“Pac immediately noticed it. I didn’t tell him anything though. Just that I am dating someone.”, he saw Roier visibly relax. Normally he might be offended because Roier should know that he would never say anything. But in this case, he understood it. Roier’s whole future depended on this secret. If the wrong person found out, it could possibly ruin his life. They fell into comfortable silence once Cellbit reclaimed his spot in Roier’s arms again.

“Can I come over on Wednesday?”, Roier asked, still combing through Cellbit’s hair and rubbing circles on his back. Cellbit hummed again in agreement.

A second later they were interrupted by someone knocking at the door. They both sprung apart and looked at each other with wide eyes. Both of them were frozen for a second, not knowing what to do until they heard a familiar voice.

“It’s just me, Tina.”

They both relaxed immediately, Cellbit letting out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Roier jumped from the table he was sitting on, to open the door for Tina. She immediately squeezed through the opening and walked towards Cellbit with a scary amount of determination in her step. She turned around to see Roier close and lock the door before starting to poke Cellbit in the chest with her finger.

“You gave him a ring??”, she whisper-yelled at him. “You romantic bastard gave my best friend a ring for his birthday?”

He put up his hands, trying to protect himself from Tina’s aggressive pocking. “I’m sorry?”, he looked over to Roier who was making his way back to where the two of them were standing, laughing quietly while watching them.

“How dare you?! That’s so adorable?!”, she poked him one last time before she was done. She let out a frustrated huff and sat on one of the desks.

He was still way too confused to understand what was going on, frozen in place with his hands still up, shielding himself from any other possible attacks. He looked between Roier and Tina, absolutely stunned by what had just happened.

Roier was just giggling as he came closer to Cellbit, putting a hand on his shoulder, holding on for support as he was laughing. Tina just watched them, now with a small smile on her face.

“I am so confused.”

Roier wrapped his arms around him and pressed a kiss on the side of his head before hugging him, still giggling. “She sometimes gets like really aggressive cuteness overload or something. She thought the whole ring tradition was really endearing.”

Cellbit smiled relieved and leaned into his boyfriends hug, looking over his shoulder to look at Tina. “I’m glad you like it too. I was a bit worried that you’d think it was weird.”

Tina shook her head. “No, it’s adorable as fuck. I’m kind of mad that we don’t have a tradition like that. It’s so cute.”
Cellbit refrained from mentioning that Tina was quite literally also dating a Brazilian person who was probably going to give her a ring at some point as well.
••••••••••••
The next day, right before walking through the open door to his math class, he was stopped by none other than Quackity who called his name.

“Cellbit!”, he yelled cheerfully and walked towards him quickly.

He stopped right in the doorway. The conversation he had with Pac, who was walking with him, was interrupted and the latter stopped as well to see what was going on. Guaxinim and Bagi, who were walking in front of them also stopped and watched the whole situation go down.

Quackity stopped right in front of them. He was a good bit shorter than both Cellbit and Pac which meant he had to look up to them a little. With him came a wave of cold cigarette smoke and the smell of sweat. His hair was as always super messy under his beanie, but it seemed to be even worse today. He also looked even more tired than usually, like he hadn’t slept in ages.

“Hi Quackity.”, he said in the most friendly but neutral way he could. He still didn’t know what went down between Quackity and his boyfriend but especially after their last interaction, Cellbit just felt a bit awkward.

“Wow, you look pretty today. Hey, uhm I was just going to ask about that date again. Because I feel like you should go on a date with me.”, Cellbit cringed a little internally.

Listen. Cellbit knew that he was never good at letting people down easily. When he was younger, lots of girls asked him on dates and it always ended up with them crying for some reason. Well, the reason was quite obvious because most of the time he just said no, without any explanation like a real asshole. He’s gotten better at it over the years though. But with Quackity he just was so confused. His answer was pretty clear last time, and he even said it really nicely. Now he was wondering if he should’ve been even more direct or even mean.

He was about to say how he very clearly did say ‘no’ last time and that he still had no romantic feelings for Quackity when he was interrupted by Pac.

“Hey man you’re talking to a taken man, be careful.”, the black-haired boy put an arm around Cellbit’s shoulder, ruffling his hair for a second.

“Wait what?”, Quackity looked at them in confusion.

And again before he could even open his mouth, Pac grabbed Cellbit’s hand by his wrist and held it up for Quackity to see. He pointed at the silver ring on his finger.

“Can’t you see that he’s wearing an anel de compromisso?”, Pac asked, probably forgetting that this was not a thing in many other countries and that Quackity also did not speak Portuguese.

Quackity looked even more confused. “What does that mean? Are you married now or something?”

Pac laughed lightly, bumping shoulders with Cellbit. “Pahahaha, married. Yeah right, you’re married at age seventeen.”, he managed to say to him in Portuguese while still laughing. It really wasn’t that funny, but Cellbit couldn’t help but grin as well, mostly because Pac’s laugh was super contagious but also because of Quackity’s expression.

Quackity apparently did not find that very amusing and put his hands on his hips, starting to look angry. Honestly, Cellbit could not take him seriously at all. He looked like he was about to explode.

“That’s not funny. Tell me now, what that means.”

“It’s a promise ring. It means that he’s in a serious committed relationship.”, Guaxinim chimed in before he could answer. Pac was still giggling, steadying himself on Cellbit’s shoulder. Quackity looked at him as if he was hoping that Guaxinim was just lying.

He just smiled brightly while nodding, touching the ring on his finger. “Could’ve done that myself but yeah, what he said.”, he could hear Bagi try not to laugh behind him.

Quackity’s face turned sour before he stormed off again like an angry toddler without another word.

“What’s his problem?”, Pac asked while looking at Cellbit questioningly. He just shrugged.

“No idea.”
••••••••••••
He didn’t immediately tell Roier about this encounter with his ex-best friend as he wanted to wait until they were on their own and had enough time to thoroughly go through the history of Roier and Quackity. So, he waited until the following day after taking Roier home.

They quickly ate before going into Cellbit’s room. This time there was no pressure of working on the project since they finished it in class and handed it in last week.

There were another few changes to his room since the last time Roier had been there. Now he had a dark green carpet lying on the floor and a few plants scattered around the room. His bed had a few more pillows, making it more comfortable. He’d also finally put up the poster of his favorite band which he had kept in the moving boxes for way too long. Overall it looked even more like home.

“I like it. It gets cozier every time I come here.”

“I’m glad you do. You’re going to spend some more time in here I think.”, Cellbit closed the door behind them.

“Am I now?”, Roier wiggled with his eyebrows, taking a step towards him.

Cellbit laughed a little and rolled his eyes before he was softly pushed against the door he had just closed. Roier captured his lips in a kiss and obviously he wasn’t going to complain about that, so he kissed him back.

His hands found their way to Roier’s shoulder and the back of his neck, he was using both for more stability and also to pull his boyfriend even closer. In the beginning Roier’s hands were only resting on his waist but he could suddenly feel them slip under his shirt, caressing the skin on his waist.

They separated for a moment to breathe and the next second Roier was pressing kisses from his lips down to his jaw and then to the side of his neck, stopping in between to suck a hickey at the sensitive skin.

Cellbit felt himself freeze for a second. He realized that it was finally the time to have this conversation with his boyfriend. He really tried to avoid it, but it was just not possible anymore. As much as he wanted to continue this, especially considering how much Roier seemed to enjoy his, he needed to stop him.

“Roier.”, Cellbit mumbled while lightly pushing at his shoulder, getting no reaction. “Roier stop please.”, he said a bit louder.

He definitely heard that because Roier immediately backed off and held up his hands, looking at Cellbit with worry and panic. He was still close enough for Cellbit’s hand to stay on his shoulder but far enough that they could look each other in the eyes.

“I need to tell you something.”

Roier looked at him, now with confusion added into his expression.

“I- I should’ve told you this earlier but uhm…I guess I- I was kind of scared that you would want to be with me anymore. Well, I’m still scared of that but here it goes”, he took a deep breath. “I’m asexual. Which means I don’t really enjoy anything in that sort of direction. Not that- Not that I’ve much experience but even the thought of having sex makes me uncomfortable.”, he managed to nervously stumble his way through the sentence, watching Roier’s reaction closely.

Before the nervousness came back, Cellbit felt pressure fall from his chest and he felt like he could breathe properly again for the first time in ages. No matter how Roier would react, the fact that for the first time, he was able to say this out loud was already enough for him. He had never said this to anyone else before, apart from Bagi even though he also never used the label asexual, but he had told her about this before. Saying it out loud felt like a huge relief.

“Oh, okay. I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable with what I was doing.”, Roier said, taking a step back.

And Cellbit really could cry at that reaction, but he held it back and shook his head.

“No, you didn’t. Everything we’ve done so far was fine, I just wanted to let you know just in case things would’ve started to go further. I hope you’re okay with that?”, he took a step towards Roier.

“Of course I’m okay with that! Relationships aren’t just about sex, there’s lots of other stuff we can do.”

And before Cellbit could actually tear up at how great and adorable his boyfriend was, Roier wrapped his arms around him to pull him into a warm hug. “You’re the best”, he whispered before burying his face in his boyfriends neck. They stood like this for a while in silence until Cellbit pulled back to go to his bed and pulling Roier along.

He sat down on his bed. Leaning against the walls and letting Roier lay down with his head resting in Cellbit’s lap. His hands immediately found their way into his boyfriends hair, playing with it.

“Quackity asked me out again.”

“What?”, Roier was about to sit up, but he softly pushed him back down by his chest.

“Relax, it was fine. I wasn’t alone. Pac basically told him that I am taken already, he didn’t like that and stomped away like a child that didn’t get the chocolate he wanted.”

Roier laughed a little at that image but grabbed one of Cellbit’s hands to interlock their fingers while looking up at him, his gaze still full of worry.

“But you are okay? Why did he ask again? Your answer was pretty clear.”

“That’s what I thought as well but apparently not clear enough.”, he huffed in annoyance.

Roier sighed and then squeezed his hand and pressed a kiss on the back of it before putting their interlocked hands on his chest.

“Are you okay though?”

“Yes, I’m fine. It’s not that big of a deal, he’s the one embarrassing himself. It’s just a bit awkward and annoying for me but I’m okay.”

Roier let out a relieved sigh. He looked at the ceiling of Cellbit’s room. Cellbit continued to run his hands through his boyfriends hair.

“But I do want to know what exactly happened with you and Quackity. You still haven’t explained that.”

Roier nodded knowingly. “Yeah, I’m sorry for not telling you earlier. It’s a bit of a longer story.”

“It’s fine, I have time.”

Roier cleared his throat before starting to tell the story. “Okay so, me, Quackity, Mariana and a guy called Spreen, became really close friends in elementary school. We were all in the same class, sitting close to each other and we just got a long pretty well. For a while me and Quackity were like inseparable. The only other person, who was closer to me was Tina.”

“We then went to middle school, all of us were still close friends. Quackity, Mariana and Spreen became friends with a guy called Rubius. He was a bit older and a friend of Vegetta, they ended up dating at some point but that’s not important. Rubius-“, he frowned like even just saying his name left a bad taste in his mouth before sighing and then continuing.

“Rubius was always a bit of a chaotic person. Not in the funny way that Foolish is, but in the way that he liked to cause drama. He’d lie and cheat and spread rumors, all to have some drama.”

“I was never that close to Rubius, at the time the others got close to him, I reconnected with Tina more and also got to know Foolish and Jaiden. I was still friends with the others but just not as closely. And then a bit over two years ago, me, Quackity and Spreen really started to hang out a lot again. Like almost daily. I was really happy because it’s been so long since we’ve hung out that much.”

“At this point I was already questioning my sexuality, and I made the mistake of talking about it with Spreen and Quackity. It wasn’t a lot, I basically just said that I thought some guys were good looking as well but that I didn’t know if I would ever want to be with a guy. Well, a day later my parents approached me and told me that if I liked guys, I had to stop immediately because the devil would get me or something like that.”

“Luckily for me, I could convince them pretty easily that I couldn’t be gay by just lying and telling them that I was in love with Tina. Turns out, according to Mariana, Rubius had told Spreen and Quackity to hang out more with me to gather information so that he could then spread some rumors. Just because he wanted to and because I was the cousin of his ex-boyfriend or something like that.”

“I was very lucky that I had Tina at that time to help me out but yeah after I found out, we had a pretty big fight about how they abused my trust. It did get pretty physical, and I obviously lost because it was two people against one. But yeah, our friendship was just done after that. Spreen’s family moved away shortly after, and I have barely talked to Quackity since then. Mariana and I became pretty close again and me and Tina started fake dating.”, Roier finished off his story.

Cellbit nodded, taking a few moments to think about everything that he’d just heard.

“Okay one thing that I don’t get is, why would they do something like this when Rubius and Quackity are both queer as well?”

“Because they are assholes, gatinho. No other reason. At least I was lucky enough that no one in school at that time found out. Rubius apparently just went to my mom and voiced his concerns”, Roier did air quotes with his fingers, “about me to her.”

“That’s absolutely wild. Other question though, doesn’t that mean that Quackity technically knows you’re gay and hasn’t spread it further?”

“I don’t know what his brain has done with this information. But after me and Tina dating, he should think that I am at the very least bisexual. And I didn’t even come out to them fully so who knows. As far as I know Rubius was the one who took that information and decided that I was just gay. To be fair, he wasn’t wrong.”

“So yeah, maybe he did realize that telling the whole school and everyone in town that I am gay could have major consequences for me after my parents almost signed me up for conversion therapy. Maybe he used his brain for once.”

Cellbit shook his head in disbelief. “Everything about this is so fucked up. I’m so sorry, guapito.”, he pressed a kiss on Roier’s forehead.

Roier frowned. “It is and I really can’t tell what he’s trying to do now. Does he just have a crush on you or is he planning something more? I mean he can’t know that we are dating, so what is his plan?”

“I have no idea.”, he placed his one free hand Roier’s head, trying to smooth out the wrinkles on his forehead. “We will be fine though. I don’t care what he’s planning, I’m not letting you go.”

“Never?”

“Nope, never ever. You’re with me now.”, Roier finally smiled back at him again before he placed another kiss on the back of the hand that was still interlocked with his. They sat like this for little in silence before he spoke up again.

“Have you thought about telling my parents that we’re dating? Not that I want to rush it, I’m just curious.”

Roier nodded. “Yeah, I think we should do it. I don’t know about Tina yet but I’m in. It seems like a good idea. Eventually my parents will know about us, and I think it will be good to have a safe space.”

“Exactly what I was thinking as well. Do you want to do it another day or just go for it today when they come back?”

“Let’s just go for it.”

A few hours later they could hear both of Cellbit’s parents coming back from work. They decided to give them a few minutes to fully arrive and sit down until they went downstairs.

“Mom, Dad?”, he called out in Portuguese, Roier following him closely.

“We are in the living room, darling!”, his mom called back.

He looked back at Roier to make sure he was okay before walking through the doorway in the living room. His mother was sitting on the sofa, crocheting something in her hands that Cellbit could not make out while his father was standing in front of his CD shelf , looking for a new CD to put in. Both of them were turned away from them.

“So, you guys have met my friend Roier.”

“Yes, we have. Hi Roier, it’s nice to see you.”, she switched to Spanish in the middle of her sentence, waving at him with a smile. Roier smiled and waved back.

“We have something to tell you guys.”, he spoke in Spanish now so that everyone knew what he was saying. Roier’s Portuguese was pretty good, but this was an important conversation.

Both of his parents turned towards the both of them, looking at them expectantly. His mother had put away her crocheting stuff and his father had stopped searching for a CD.

He looked back at Roier again for confirmation who nodded with a small nervous smile. He grabbed his boyfriends hand, he could feel how much he was shaking so he gently squeezed his hand before announcing,

“Well, me and Roier are actually dating. We’ve been dating for a few weeks”

His parents both immediately started smiling warmly. His father came over to put a hand on Roier’s shoulder.

“I hope my son treats you well, he’s a bit odd sometimes.”

Cellbit gasped dramatically. “Excuse me? Betrayed by my own parents?”

His mother came over as well to pull Roier into a hug. “You could’ve done better to be honest, but I guess Cellbit an acceptable guy.”

“I gave him the anel de compromisso! What do you mean, he could’ve done better?”, he saw Roier giggle quietly while hugging his mother, which made him smile.

His mother pulled back from the hug, looking at them in surprise. “Wait you did?”, she slipped back into Portuguese, probably without meaning to.

Cellbit nodded proudly and pointed at the ring he was wearing and at the ring on Roier’s necklace.

“Oh well then welcome to the family Roier.”, she said in Spanish again and then hugged his boyfriend once more. Roier smiled brightly.

“There is one thing though.”, Roier spoke up for the first time now. “My parents can’t know. They are not as, well as accepting. They would not be happy with finding out I’m dating a guy. I’m going to tell them at some point but not right now. So, in front of them we are still just friends.”

He could see the disappointment and sadness in the faces of his parents, but they nodded with understandingly.

“If you ever need a place to stay or something, you will always have a home here. You don’t even have to ask.”, his father spoke up before pulling Roier into a hug as well.

Chapter Text

A few weeks went by without anything eventful happening. It was exam season, so everyone was pretty busy. She barely got to see Bagi and if she did then it was only for a short time in school. Same with Roier and her other friends. At the same time the pressure to perform well, was increasing with more and more exams and teachers already preparing them for their final exams. The pressure of keeping up her good grades seemingly increased with every single day. Her parents also could not stop talking about how important these exams were for her final grade. She was already on top of her class but that didn’t seem to satisfy them, so she had to work even harder.

A few months ago, Roier was the main reason for her to keep going. Seeing him every day in school would light up her day and make her feel okay again. Now it wasn’t only Roier but also Bagi. Even though they barely had any time and were both very busy, they managed to see each other at least once a day for a few minutes. They would meet up in empty classrooms and be with each other. Sometimes they would chat about their day or whatever other topic would come up. And other times they wouldn’t say anything, just holding each other.

At some point Tina got fed up with the pressure at home and not seeing her girlfriend enough that she asked Bagi to stay with her in school after class so that they could study together. This way they could spend time together and still do something for school. And it was the perfect excuse for not having to see her parents.

Do you want to stay with me after school tomorrow so we can study together in the library?

YESS!!

Bagi was already waiting in the library for her when Tina entered the room. She waved her over to the desk where she was sitting at. In front of her were a few open books, a few sheets of paper, her notepad and different colored pens. Tina sat down right across from her and whispered a hello. Most other students were already gone but there were a few others sitting behind the bookshelves, so Tina decided to be safe and not say much else.

She tried to focus completely on the material that she had pulled out from her bag but her girlfriend on the other side of the table looked so gorgeous that she was having a bit of a hard time. Bagi rarely put her hair up in a bun, but she did today and her two-colored bangs framed her face beautifully as they fell over her face. Combined with the sun shining through the window, reflecting a warm light onto Bagi’s figure, she looked like an angel again.

Both of them studied in silence for a while until Tina was sure every other student had left the library. Bagi looked up from her book as Tina stood up to take a look if anyone was still there. When she came back, she sat back down on her chair and took Bagi’s hands into hers.

“Hey love”

“Hey, how are you?”, Bagi squeezed her hands slightly, caressing the back of her hands with her thumb.

She sighed. “Okay I suppose. My parents are being a pain in the ass. But we’re almost done. How are you doing?”

Bagi nodded. “I’m fine, just a bit exhausted of all the studying but I’m good.”, she paused to think for a second. “When is your last exam?”

“On Friday.”

“Me too. Do you want to come over afterwards? Maybe for a sleepover? I think Roier is also staying with us.”

Tina hesitated for just a moment. A sleepover sounded like taking a next step and she didn’t know if she was ready for that yet. Obviously Roier and Cellbit would be there as well, but it still meant something, right? Thinking about sleeping in the same bed as Bagi made her heart pick up the pace. The few seconds Tina hesitated before replying were already enough for Bagi.

“You can say no. I won’t be mad. If you feel like this is too much for you, you can always say no.”

Tina couldn’t help but smile at her girlfriends antics and squeezed her hands slightly. She was being sweet as always. Tina couldn’t be more thankful for how lovely and patient Bagi was with her. She never pushed her to do anything she didn’t want and always let her take full control when it came to showing affection or physical touch.

“No, it’s fine, I think. It sounds fun. I will have to ask my parents though. Will your parents be there?”

Bagi nodded. Tina still had only met Bagi’s and Cellbit’s parents once and didn’t even talk to them, but Roier had told her lovely things about them. They seemed to be really loving and accepting people.

“If you’re up for it, we could tell them. About us. But we can also do it another day. No rush.”

“I might decide that on the day if that’s fine? I don’t know yet if I’m ready.”

Bagi nodded quickly. “Of course that’s fine love.”

“I missed you so much”

“I missed you too”

The two of them stayed like this for a bit longer before continuing their studies in silence. They would take little breaks together to chat and enjoy each other’s company. They tried to help one another with studying by exchanging their notes or explaining certain things.

===============

A few days later, Tina sat down at the cafeteria table across from Foolish and Etoiles. With the recent development of their friendship, Etoiles has been sitting with them almost every day and sometimes bringing his French friends like Antoine or Kenny. They were both really nice and Tina also really liked Etoiles. He was funny, a great listener, really smart and overall super interesting to talk to. The only problem she had was that she still couldn’t figure out what was going on between him and Foolish.

Everyone kind of knew that Etoiles didn’t date people, for whatever reason. Most people didn’t care about that, so no one really asked why. He had just said it a few times when he got asked out because even though he wasn’t really popular, people knew of Etoiles and to be fair, he was really handsome.

So technically she knew that Etoiles didn’t date but people change their minds sometimes. Foolish was also really handsome, ever since him and Vegetta broke up, he’s been getting asked out a lot, but he’s been saying no to all of them. Maybe Etoiles changed his mind and was trying to pursue Foolish.

But then again, Foolish had told Roier that it wasn’t like that. She thought that maybe that was just Foolish’s perception of the whole thing and that maybe Etoiles had something else in mind. She obviously wouldn’t mind if it was that way. Etoiles seemed to make Foolish incredibly happy by just being around. They reminded Tina a lot of Cellbit and Roier when they interacted with one another. Just constantly laughing and joking but with this comfortable tone as if they had known each other for ages.

The only problem Tina had with Etoiles potentially wanting more than a friendship with Foolish, was that she really loved Foolish and didn’t want him to get hurt. The breakup really took a toll on him, it hurt her heart to see him like that. She didn’t want him to go through that again just because a guy was playing with him. She just didn’t know and trust Etoiles enough to properly take care of her friend.

She kept on thinking about what to do while watching them, Foolish had his chin resting on Etoiles shoulder and his arm loosely wrapped around his shoulders. They were looking at Etoiles phone, giggling at whatever was on there and sometimes whispering to one another. Tina decided that she was fed up with not knowing what was going on.

“Hey Etoiles? Can we talk for a second?”, Tina interrupted the two in front of her, gesturing to the door.

They both looked up at her like two deer caught in headlights. Etoiles looked at Foolish before looking back at her and nodding. “Of course.”

Both of them stood up while Foolish was still sitting at their table. He wasn’t alone because Roier had just arrived from wherever him and Cellbit had been making out. They two immediately got into a conversation about who knows what. Probably sports.

Her and Etoiles went out the doors of the cafeteria, Tina lead them into one of the nearby supply cabinets so that they could have some privacy. She let Etoiles go in first before following him and closing the door behind her.

“So, what’s this about?”

“What are your intentions with Foolish?”

“Oh, wow right for it. Uhm my intentions? I don’t have any, I think.”, Etoiles looked pretty confused.

“Well do you like him?”

“Of course I do, he’s great.”

“But like in a romantic way?”

It seemed like that switched a lever in Etoiles brain as all confusion vanished from his face and clarity set in. “Ahh!”, he exclaimed now finally understanding what Tina was asking him. “Now I get it, you want to know if I want to date him.”

“Yeah. Well? Are you?”

Etoiles laughed lightly before shaking his head. “Nope.”

Now it was Tina who frowned in confusion. “But then why-? I don’t get it.”

Etoiles smiled at her sympathetically. “Okay let me explain. It’s really not that hard. I really like Foolish and Foolish really likes me, at least I think so. But I’m aromatic so there is no romantic attraction for me. I can know that Foolish is attractive and a great friend, but I would never date him because I don’t feel that way towards him, or to anyone for that matter. It’s probably the same way you feel about Roier.”

Tina nodded, understanding everything so far. “But then why do you guys act like a couple sometimes?”

Etoiles laughed again. “Honestly, I didn’t even notice that until someone asked me if we were dating. It just naturally happened, I think. I don’t really have anyone that I am physically close to. And Foolish like craves physical contact, so I think that’s how it happened. We are just physically really close because we both enjoy it. But there are no feelings involved.”

“It’s like my dream because sometimes I also really enjoy physical contact, and I can just hang out with Foolish, but I don’t have to be afraid that he will think I’m trying to flirt with him or something. It’s perfect for both of us.”, Etoiles finished explaining.

“Okay that makes sense.”, Tina nodded. “Sorry if I came off rude, he’s just really important to me.”

Etoiles waved her off. “Don’t worry about it. I get it, he’s very precious to me too. You know sometimes I feel like we are the same person or like we are soulmates. He just gets me, you know?”

Tina nodded. “Yeah, I noticed that too. It’s pretty cute.”

He flashed her a grin. “So, we’re good now?”

Tina rolled her eyes but grinned back. “We were never not good Etoiles.”

“No, you hate me and took me here to beat me up.”, he laughed.

“Exactly, no one will ever find your body.”, she laughed, shoving Etoiles slightly before the two of them went back to the cafeteria.

===============

As Friday came closer, Tina got more and more nervous about the whole staying over at Bagi’s and Cellbit’s house. It took some convincing for her parents to agree to let sleep over at their house but eventually they did give in after Tina promised that it would be a girls night. She did not mention Roier sleeping over as well because she knew that they wouldn’t let her go anywhere, the moment they heard his name.

Roier was really excited for Friday. He kept on bringing it up the whole week with this stupid big smile on his face that he always got when talking about Cellbit. They had already slept in the same bed on Roier’s birthday, he told her all about it.

“It was the best sleep I’ve ever had.”, he said again smiling like an idiot.

Apparently, he had woken up with his head on Cellbit’s chest while Cellbit was playing with his hair. She envied the both of them for being so comfortable with each other. They seemed like they were just constantly in sync, like they had known each other for ages when in reality it was just a few months. Roier confirmed this to her.

“I think we are soulmates or something.”

They played off each other so easily, joking around like old friends but with that look of love in their eyes like they’ve been married for 50 years. She truly envied them because she still felt so nervous around Bagi. Just thinking about seeing her and being able to talk to her made her palms sweat. She sometimes had a confidence boost and really tried to be brave because she knew that Bagi would not make to first step as to not make her uncomfortable. That’s why she did the whole thing with their first kiss and sitting on top of her.

When they hung out together, she couldn’t help but feel conscious about her every move. She knew that she was overthinking it, but she couldn’t help but want to be a good girlfriend and treat Bagi as well as she treated her. She didn’t want to lose Bagi, but she knew that she couldn’t comfortably be herself around her. And that was definitely not Bagi’s fault. She never made her uncomfortable in any way. Bagi would reassure her if she hesitated for even a second. Bagi was truly awesome.

She had told Tina that she had a few girlfriends before, none of them were long lasting or really serious relationships but Tina still felt self-conscious about it. Bagi obviously had more experience with these kinds of things. She knew how to kiss a girl, how to flirt with a girl and how to be in a relationship with a girl. Tina’s only experience was Roier and that definitely didn’t count. With Roier everything was easy because she had known him for so long. And she also never had a crush on him, which took away the whole nervousness thing.

For some reason, Roier was so good at the whole having-a-boyfriend thing. It seemed to be completely effortless, like he wasn’t nervous at all around Cellbit. He did tell her that he felt his heart racing around him all the time, but Tina felt like that wasn’t the same. Roier was just madly in love with Cellbit while Tina had a big ass crush on her girlfriend and didn’t know how to act like a normal person around her.

In the end, Friday did roll around and the four of them went to Cellbit and Bagi’s house after school. On the bus, they sat in couples right across from each other. Tina watched as Roier and Cellbit watched something on the latter’s phone and giggling at it. They couldn’t really act like they would normally because there were still people from their school on the bus. If you didn’t know so, you probably wouldn’t think that the two were a couple, but Tina did know, and for some reason it made envious again. The way they behaved, proved to her again proved how comfortable they were with each other.

Bagi seemed to notice her look and nudged her slightly, offering one of her earbuds to Tina. She smiled at her girlfriend before putting in the earbud on her left ear. She immediately recognized the song, it was a song she used to listen to a few years ago when it first came out. The artist was a smaller female indie artist who was a lesbian as well and wrote really good songs among other topics, about loving women. It helped her a lot when she first fully realized what sexuality really was and what a lesbian was.

“That’s one of my favorite songs.”, she smiled at Bagi as the first cords of the song started to play and the singer started singing.

“Really? It’s one of my favorites too!”, Bagi flashed her a grin and mouthed the lyrics to her. Tina blushed a little and mouthed them back to her. They both grinned and Bagi turned up the volume, brushing Tina’s hand while reaching for her phone. They shared a knowing look before Tina leaned back in her seat, closing her eyes to focus on the music.

The song describes a girls love for a girl who has a boyfriend. She says that if the girl knew she liked girls, she would want her, the singer. Tina had also heard the interpretation that it was actually more like a letter to the younger self of the singer. In the letter she was telling herself that she was unhappy with a boyfriend and would prefer to date girls, if only she knew that was what she wanted.

It reminded Tina a bit of her relationship with Roier, even though she did know that she was attracted to women when they started dating. But she knew how unhappy she still was, so that song comforted her a lot whenever she was feeling upset while they were dating.

===============

Cellbit and Bagi’s father had cooked for the four of them when they arrived at their house. Tina made sure to thank him properly before sitting down with her Bagi and the boys. Their father hadn’t even bat an eye when Roier had pressed a kiss on Cellbit’s cheek. No reaction even though he had clearly seen it, as if it was the most normal thing in the world. Which it was, but she was so used to see adults freak out about any public display of affection by queer people, that she had expected at least a weird look or a frown from him. But no, nothing.

Bagi seemed to notice her confusion again and nudged her slightly with her elbow. When Tina turned to her, she mouthed Are you good?. Tina nodded and whispered Later before turning back to her food.

After eating, the four decided to hang out in Cellbit’s room as he had the larger room. Roier and Cellbit sat on the latter’s bed while Tina and Bagi sat on the two chairs that were standing in the room.

“Your parents are really okay with you two staying in the same room?”, she asked curiously.

Cellbit rose an eyebrow, looking almost offended at the question. “Uh…yeah? Why wouldn’t they be?”

Roier put a hand on Cellbit’s arm. “Gatinho, Tina’s parents never let us sleep in the same room whenever I stayed over. And during the we had to keep the door to her room open the whole time. During the whole time we were dating. And they tried to convince my parents to do the same.”

Cellbit’s looked at her for confirmation, she nodded her head which made his face change from confusion to surprise. “Oh yeah that explains a lot. Your parents are quite, how do you say-?“

“Strict? Conservative? Christian? Yeah, seems about right.”, she interrupted him with a sad smile.

“Was that why you looked so confused earlier?”, Bagi asked, grabbing one of Tina’s hands and squeezing it. Tina squeezed her hand back.

“Yeah, I don’t know why but I expected at least some reaction from your dad. Even though you said that your parents are fine with you guys being queer. My aunt says so as well, but she will still like wrinkle her nose when she sees two guys holding hands in public. I suppose that’s still better than my parents but you know? I was surprised.”, she saw Roier nod at her words. He knew her aunt and had heard her talk about how she didn’t have anything gay people, but they didn’t need to show it in public.

“I know this is normal for you guys, but I haven’t really met many adults, who are not homophobic. Our teachers are cool, yeah but there’s still the difference between seeing students be queer and your own child or someone in your family being queer.”

There was silence when she stopped talking. Cellbit and Bagi shared a look while her girlfriend squeezed her hand slightly again. Roier looked over to her and nodded encouragingly. Tina just sighed, tucking her hair behind her ears.

“Sorry, I know it’s not your guys’ fault, but I still feel frustrated sometimes because I just wish my parents were at least a little bit more like yours. I know that they are going kick me out once they find out I like girls. Well maybe they will try to exorcise the lesbian out of me, like Roier’s parents did with him.”, she laughed a little, Roier joining her. Both Bagi and Cellbit didn’t seem to know how to react to that and just smiled weakly at the last comment.

“I wish we could do something to help you guys. It feels like we can’t do anything about this, and we are just going to have to see you guys get hurt.”, Bagi sighed in frustration.

“Honestly, I don’t think anyone can do anything about this. This feels way too big of an issue for us. I do feel a bit safer after coming out to your parents. Knowing that in the worst-case scenario, I could stay here at least for a little bit.”, Roier said, leaning against Cellbit’s.

“Do you think that would help you feel a bit safer too? Because they would offer you the same Tina.”, Cellbit asked while resting his head on Roier’s.

She thought about it for a second. If her parents really kicked her out, she wouldn’t really have any place to go to. Roier’s place was out of question. All of her family either was the same as her parents or lived in Korea. Foolish and Jaiden didn’t really have parents and were each other’s family. They lived in group homes for orphaned children, so that was not an option as well. And those were all the people she knew enough to even consider staying at their place. So really, she didn’t know what she would do when her parents would throw her out.

She nodded slightly. “Honestly, yeah, I think it would. I don’t know where I would go.”

“We can talk to them today once Mom comes home of you want?”, Bagi suggested. Tina nodded slightly. Even though she was nervous about it, she knew that this was for the better.

The few seconds of silence were broken by Roier clapping his hands together once. “Bagi, you wanted to show me something?”

Bagi immediately sat up and nodded eagerly. “Yes, I do. You two wait here, come Roier!”, and with that the two stood up and left Cellbit’s room.

“She isn’t showing him shit.”, Cellbit commented.

“Oh yeah absolutely not. They are probably just standing outside the door listening.”, Tina laughed and Cellbit joined her. They had never really talked much to one another and had never been alone in the same room before even though both Roier and Bagi swore that they were really similar. She knew that the two of them had wanted to make them talk for a bit now, but it never worked out until now.

“So, I guess they wanted us to talk and are really bad at being smooth or subtle about it.” Cellbit pushed the hair out of his face before patting the empty spot on the bed next to him. “Come sit, if they want us to talk, we will talk.”

Tina smiled at him and walked over to sit down with some space between them, leaning against the wall.

“How have you been? With the whole relationship stuff? Roier mentioned that he was your first kiss, so I’m assuming he’s your first boyfriend as well?”, she sat crisscrossed, playing with a hair tie in her hands.

“Yeah, he is. I don’t know, sometimes I feel like we are going too fast or that I’m being too much, but Roier has never said that he didn’t like it. So, I think I’m doing something right. How about you?”

She sighed. “I’m like doubting myself constantly. Like I’m so afraid of doing something wrong. And Bagi still makes me so nervous by just being around. I don’t know what to do.”, she looked up at Cellbit who was smiling at her warmly.

“That’s good to hear. That means she means a lot to you.”

“I mean yeah of course she does. But I wish I could be as relaxed as you are around Roier. You two make being in a relationship look so easy. You just naturally work together.”

“Maybe yeah but that’s me and Roier. We are completely different people than you two. Obviously, a relationship between us will look different than between you and my sister.”

“I still wish I could stop overthinking.”

“Have you told her about this?”

Tina shook her head. She was pretty sure that Bagi knew anyways because she could just read her like an open book. But she never said anything about it.

“You should. I bet it would help you at least a little. Whenever something is on your mind, you should talk about it, no matter how small it might seem to you. I told Roier that was asexual and afterwards I felt so relieved. And his reaction was better than anything I could’ve hoped for. So, you should talk to her.”

“You’re asexual?”

“That’s the only thing you took away from that?”, Cellbit laughed, Tina grinned at him. “Yes I am.”, he paused for a second. “This is only the second or third time I’ve said that out loud.”

“Me too! I think I’m asexual too.”, she also paused for a second before continuing “Wow, I think this is the first time I’ve said that out loud.”

“Damn they were right about us being similar!”, Cellbit laughed, and Tina joined him quickly. “I hate it when they are right.”

They continued to talk for a little while until Bagi and Roier came back from whatever Bagi had shown Roier.

“Did you stand outside the door to listen to us?”, Cellbit asked as Roier sat down on one of the chairs.

Bagi shook her head. “No, we do have some respect for privacy, so we left and waited in my room.”

“You do? Where was that respect when you came into my room without knocking?”

“It’s not a lot of respect. And that respect is more for Tina’s privacy than for yours.”

===============

A few hours later, Cellbit and Bagi’s mother returned home so Tina and Bagi decided to go down to the kitchen, to have a talk with both parents. Their mom was standing in the kitchen, unloading her shopping bags while their father was preparing dinner.

“Hey girls!”, Bagi’s mom greeted them in English as she put the milk in the fridge.

“Hey mom, dad. Do you have a minute?”, Bagi took the lead.

“Sure. What’s up?”, their mom leaned against the kitchen counter. Their dad looked up at them after flipping whatever was in the pan in front of him.

Bagi looked over to Tina and motioned her to take a deep breath, which she did before she continued talking. “Well, you know how Cellbit and Roier are dating?”, Both parents nodded. “Well, me and Tina aren’t really friends either. We started dating like two months ago.”

“Oh, girls that’s so cute!”, Bagi’s mom walked over to them and pulled Bagi into a hug before asking if she could hug Tina as well. She nodded and let herself be pulled into a warm hug.

“I knew it!”, their father exclaimed, pointing at them with his spatula. “I knew that look earlier wasn’t platonic.”

“You’re lying, my look was perfectly normal.”

“No, I know my daughter. That was not a this-is-my-friend look, that was a this-is-my-girlfriend look.” Their father laughed lightly.

“What do you know?!”, Bagi stuck out her tongue in a childish manner before laughing. Her father did the same back and then joined her laughter. Her mother was standing next to Tina, laughed a bit as well and then turned to her.

“Welcome to the family, Tina. If you ever need any help or a place to stay, don’t hesitate to reach out. Let my kids give you our numbers, you can call us anytime. Same with Roier.”

Tina felt tears well up in her eyes and that tight feeling in her throat as she tried not to cry. As always, Bagi noticed this and grabbed her hand. Tina cleared her throat. “Thank you so much.”, her voice came out broken and shaky as a tear left her eyes and rolled down her cheek.

“Oh, sweetheart don’t cry.”, Bagi’s mother pulled her into another hug. Tina hugged her back, not able to hold back her tears anymore and full-on crying. She felt Bagi rub her back with the hand that wasn’t still holding her hand.

A few moments later, she had let most of it out and backed off from Bagi’s mother with embarrassment. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

Bagi and her mother both shook their heads. “No need to apologize, you needed that. I’m glad you trust me so much.”, her mother said as she gave Tina some tissues. Tina got another hug from Bagi’s dad, before they went upstairs again.

===============

Some hours later, the four of them separated. Bagi and Tina went to Bagi’s room to sleep while the boys stayed in Cellbit’s. As considerate as she was, Bagi asked her if she should go to the bathroom to change but Tina didn’t mind changing the same room, so they did just that. Normally Tina would sleep with a lot less clothes on but since it has gotten colder recently, she put on some long pajama pants and a shirt. Bagi was wearing the same but a sleeveless top instead of a shirt.

After doing their night routine, both of them laid down on the bed under the blanket, facing each other. The lamp on the nightstand was still turned on as they both weren’t really tired yet and still wanted to talk. Now they were laying there just looking at each other for a few seconds.

“Whenever you’re around, I feel like I have to be the perfect girlfriend. I overthink everything I do, and I- I get really nervous.”, a rare confidence boost from her side and while she wanted to take everything back immediately, she knew this was the right way to start this conversation.

“Oh…thank you for telling me.”, Bagi paused for a second, probably to think about what to say next. “I’m sorry you feel like you have to be perfect. No one is. You are my girlfriend and you’re the best for me. I don’t need more.”

“I feel like I have to be better than your ex-girlfriends.”, Bagi began to grin. “I know that sounds stupid.”

“No no that’s not why I’m laughing. You just already are. All of my previous relationships ended after like three weeks. And they were years ago. The last one ended when I was 14. You don’t have any competition, Tina. You are already the best relationship I’ve ever been in.”

Tina smiled and blushed a little. “Okay that does make me feel better. But I still feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. And- and you make me so nervous all the time. It’s like I have a crush on my girlfriend.”

Bagi smiled warmly, her look was full of love. “That’s really cute. Should I tell you a secret?”, she paused. “Just because I hide it better, doesn’t mean I don’t get nervous. I was super nervous all week, thinking about your lying in my bed with me.”

Tina felt her cheeks hear up. “Really? Me too. I always thought you were so relaxed and comfortable, and I felt bad for still getting so nervous around you.”

“Yeah, no I feel the same way. My hands get sweaty and my heart races. Like feel it right now”, Bagi took Tina’s hand and put it on her chest so she could feel her heart beating rapidly. Tina looked at her in surprise.

“But you look so-, like relaxed? How do you do that?”, Tina was about to take her hand back when Bagi held her hand in hers and kept both of their hands close to her chest.

“Hm, I don’t know. It’s not really a conscious thing. I think I learned to do that through fighting. Because you can never let your opponent know that you’re scared. Maybe it’s because of that.”

“That’s kinda hot”, Tina mumbled.

Bagi laughed quietly. “I’m glad you think so, love.”

They looked at each other in silence for a few moments. Tina brought up the one hand that wasn’t holding Bagi’s, up to her girlfriends face, softly brushing over her cheek with the back of her fingers. “You are so beautiful.”, she whispered. Tina pressed a small kiss on her forehead.

“And you are so gorgeous.”, Bagi whispered back. Bagi kissed her forehead.

They both smiled before Bagi reached out to turn of the lamp on her nightstand. Once darkness filled the room, Tina scooted closer to Bagi. Their legs were now touching, and she could feel her breath on her face. Bagi pulled her a bit closer until she could feel Bagi’s chin touch the crown of her head.

“Good night my love.”

“Good night angel.”

Chapter Text

Roier loved basketball. It was his favorite sport to watch and to do himself. He loved being on the court, the adrenaline running through his veins, playing together with his teammates. The feeling of the ball touching his fingertips as he threw the ball into the basket. The feeling of euphoria when he scored a point. He loved every second of it. And he had loved it for most of his life. He started playing when he was 6 years old in his family’s backyard and loved it ever since. Not for one moment did he ever think about quitting or not liking the sport.

Everything had been going well. His team was supposed to have the first game earlier in the year, but the initial game got delayed because too many players were sick on the other team from the high school in the next city. It got delayed again because a storm set the gym of the other high school under water, making them unable to play there. But now it was finally time, two weeks before Christmas.

Their coach informed them a month prior to the game, telling them that they were going to pick up practice more. Roier, as the team captain made sure to hype up his team. They had a three year long win streak against the other school so Roier was fairly confident in their abilities.

He also immediately told Cellbit after practice was done and he was waiting for him outside the changing room.

“Gatinho!”, Roier grinned and after he pulled him into the empty changing room, pressing a kiss on his lips.

“Hey Guapito.”, Cellbit smiled softly at him, kissing him back and holding him closely by his waist.

“We finally have our game! In 4 weeks! Will you be there?”, he grabbed Cellbit’s shoulders excitedly. His boyfriend smiled teasingly.

“Will you win for me? And protect me if a ball comes near me?”

Roier pretended to think about it, scratching his chin. “Hm I will see what I can do.”

“If you don’t throw yourself in the balls way to protect me, I will be disappointed just so you know.”

“Pendejo.” Roier whispered before kissing him again.

“Of course I will come, I will bring Bagi with me though. Obviously for emotional support and not because she will want to see Tina look hot or whatever.”, Cellbit clarified after the kiss.

“Oh yeah but you will definitely not be looking at my arms and chest during the game. You will be completely focused on the ball.”, he teased playfully.

“Obviously.”, Cellbit grinned, putting his hands on Roier’s biceps which was covered by his hoodie, squeezing it slightly with a satisfied grin.

“Can I ask you something?”

Cellbit looked back up at him again, nodding slightly with a hum.

“So, you said you’re asexual but then why do you still find this”, he looked at Cellbit’s hands on his arms. “attractive? I mean I’m not complaining, my boyfriend thinks I’m hot, that’s like the best thing ever. I’m just wondering.”

“Well how it works for me is that I can see that you are attractive. You are conventionally attractive, and I can also most definitely appreciate your beauty. But just not like other people do. I find you physically attractive in the way that I can’t stop looking at you and want to touch your arms and things like that. But I don’t want to have sex with you. I look at you and I think He’s so beautiful, I want to keep looking at him and not He’s so beautiful, I want to have sex with him. Like other people look at you and they get all hot and like horny or whatever because you’re so attractive, but I don’t. Does that make sense?”

“So, what I’m hearing is that you think I’m beautiful?”, Roier teased lightly, receiving a pinch in the arm by his boyfriend.

“Yes, I do.”, Cellbit playfully rolled his eyes before. “I think you’re very beautiful.”

He smiled at him. “I think you look okay too.”, he said in the sweetest voice he could muster up, earning himself another pinch. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding! You’re the prettiest.”, he kissed Cellbit’s left cheek “Of all time.”, he kissed his right cheek. “Ever.”, he kissed him on the lips with a satisfied grin.

••••••••••••

The following weeks were pretty stressful for Roier and his team. The announcement of their first game was in the middle of exam season so they had to somehow juggle practicing for the game and studying for their exams at the same time. This resulted in the whole atmosphere being very tense and for Roier to barely see Cellbit.

They only saw each other in class and sometimes in the cafeteria. And in both those places, they couldn’t even really be themselves. They had to pretend like they were just friends or classmates which admittedly, wasn’t super hard because of the way they acted towards each other normally anyways. But it was hard not being able to just press a kiss of Cellbit’s lips after calling him a dumbass.

Which was why he was very grateful for their double-sleepover day. Not only did he finally get to spend time with his boyfriend but also got to see his best friend and a new friend too. Him and Bagi had become a bit closer recently, even though they didn’t have a good start. They sat together in their art class since both Cellbit and Tina were in French Art class and both of them were in English Art class. Through that, they spend more time just talking about what ever, mostly their each other’s partners and sibling or best friend. Bagi was really nice and funny, Roier liked her a lot.

While her and Tina went down to talk to Bagi’s and Cellbit’s parents, Roier took the opportunity to join Cellbit on his bed. He softly pushed him at his shoulder so that he was laying on his back before just laying on top of him, burying his face in the crook of his shoulder. One hand landed on the back of his neck while the other held onto his shoulder. He took a deep, satisfied breath.

Cellbit had just begun laughing lightly, making his chest vibrate against Roier’s. He then wrapped his arms around Roier’s body and started rubbing his back and softly combing through his hair with his fingers. “Aww did someone miss me?”

“No, I would never do such thing. I hate you actually.”, he mumbled against the side of Cellbit’s neck.

“I see, I hate you too you know? So much.”

Roier was about to say I love you too sarcastically but he held himself back because he knew that he actually meant it. It felt like another big step, and he wanted the first time to be a more special moment. It felt like too much of a big step. He knew that he was ready to say it, but he didn’t want to rush Cellbit into anything. So, he would wait. Instead, he decided to say nothing and come to the very rational decision just softly bite Cellbit. Obviously not hard enough to really hurt him.

“What the fuck Roier?!”, Cellbit yelled, pulling at his hair the second his teeth touched his boyfriend’s skin. Roier immediately let go and let Cellbit pull him away from his shoulder. He sat up, supporting his body with his hands on Cellbit’s chest. They locked eyes as he started grinning.

“What was that for?!”, Cellbit still looked bewildered by what had just happened. Roier used his shock to his advantage and leaned down to softly kiss him and whisper “Nothing, I just felt like biting you. You look very bite able do you know that?”

“You- I- what?!”, he struggled to find his words before just accepting defeat. “Okay whatever I’m taking that as a compliment.” Roier laughed lightly before bending down to the same spot on his shoulder. There was a slight bite mark on Cellbit’s shoulder, he pressed a kiss on it and before fully laying down on his boyfriend again. Cellbit’s hands returned to their original place and started caressing him softly. It was so relaxing that he decided to close his eyes.

“It didn’t hurt you, right?”, Roier asked, just to be sure.

“No not at all. I was just surprised to feel your teeth. Was not exactly expecting my boyfriend to turn into a blood sucker.”, Cellbit laughed.

“Okay good. I was just joking around, I have not become a vampire, yet.”

He could almost hear Cellbit roll his eyes, but he could also hear the smile in his voice. “You’re so fucking weird.”

“Says the one who plays chess and tetris.”, he mumbled.

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Nothing nothing.”, he felt a pinch on his waist which made him giggle. “I’m kidding it’s actually kind of hot.”

“What? That I’m a nerd?”, he could hear the smile in his voice. Roier hummed while nodding.

“It’s hot that you’re smart.”

Before Cellbit could reply, the door to Cellbit’s room opened and he heard two people entering, presumably Tina and Bagi. He didn’t bother moving at all and just stayed on top of his boyfriend who kept on caressing him softly. His warm hands on his back and his head made him a bit sleepy so he had some trouble focusing on the conversation going on between the other three. He hadn’t slept that well in the past weeks because of all the stress with the game and exams so he was pretty tired. He felt Cellbit’s voice vibrating in his chest.

“How was it?”

“It went pretty well-“, Bagi started.

“I cried like a little baby.”, Tina interrupted her and then paused for a second. Roier could imagine her and Bagi exchanging ominous looks. “But I think it went well too.”

“And what’s up with this guy?”, even half asleep Roier could tell that they were now talking about him. He still didn’t bother moving or reacting at all. He was way too cozy now.

“This guy is a little sleepy or something.”, Cellbit’s voice vibrated under him.

“You treat him like 5-year-old.”, he wasn’t sure who of the girls said that, his brain was already gone too far.

He felt Cellbit’s laugh vibrating in his chest before a kiss was pressed on his head. “He is a bit of a baby sometimes.”

“I’m going to bite you again.”, he mumbled against his neck and promptly felt Cellbit’s laugh again.

••••••••••••

A few hours later Bagi and Tina had gone to Bagi’s room to sleep there, Roier was awake again after he had taken a small nap on his boyfriend earlier. Him and said boyfriend were now sitting on his bed again, catching up on things that they didn’t have the time to talk about previously.

Cellbit was leaning against the wall while Roier had his head down his lap, looking up at him while they were talking. As always, they both couldn’t keep their hands to themselves to while Roier was playing with one of Cellbit’s hands, the latter was rubbing circles on the side of his neck.

“Oh yeah, I wanted to talk to you about the game again. My basketball game next week.”

Cellbit nodded, signaling him to continue talking.

“So, you’re still going to be there, right?”

Cellbit hummed and nodded. Roier smiled before continuing to talk.

“Okay I got two tickets for free, to give to family and friends. My parents won’t be there so I will give them to you and Bagi.”

Cellbit smiled, leaning down to kiss him on the forehead. “Thanks, guapito. I also wanted to talk to you about the game.”

Now it was Roier’s time to nod, to make him go on.

“So, when you win, because I know you’re going to win.”, Roier grinned smugly. “Can I at least give you a hug? Because I know I’m going to want to kiss you right in front of everybody, but I won’t do that. So is a hug, okay?”

He felt himself practically melting at these words. His boyfriend was way too considerate and nice, always looking out for him. This was such a small thing, but Cellbit always wanted to make sure he was okay. This was why he was so in love with him.

“Yeah, a hug is definitely okay gatinho. God, you’re so cute do you know that?”, he pressed a kiss on the back of his hand.

“So, I’ve been told.”

••••••••••••

When the day of the game finally came, Roier felt like he was going to explode with excitement and nervousness. He was really excited to finally play a real game again after it had been a couple of months, but he was nervous to have Cellbit watch him. He knew that Cellbit had seen him play multiple times before, either in sports class or when he would sometimes watch practice. But this was different. This was an actual game of basketball and Roier felt like he was playing in the pro league against the big teams with how excited he was.

His teammates were just as excited. Foolish was never really calm and was always bouncing around the changing room but today he seemed to be even more restless. Mariana was in a similar situation to Roier with his boyfriend Slimecicle watching, though the latter had seen a few games already, it’s been a while as they were broken up for a few months. For Fit it was surprisingly also pretty similar, but him and Pac weren’t official yet. Pac had seen a few games before as well but now there was some tension between the two so Fit was also a lot more nervous than he usually was. Malena and Molly only seemed to be excited to finally play again, from what Roier knew, neither of them had any lovers watching them today.

Tina was also in the same state as Roier today because of Bagi. The cheerleading team would perform right before the game would start and it was their first time performing this year as well. All around just nervousness and excitement which made Roier even more nervous. He just needed one person to be calm today so that he could also calm down a bit. Luckily, he found that person when he went to the toilet as they had 10 minutes before they had to leave the changing room.

Leaning against the wall between the toilets was Jaiden on her phone. She looked up at him as he came around the corner. She immediately smiled and waved at him.

“Hey Ro, how are you?”

“Hey Jaiden. Nervous, excited, jittery, like I’m about to explode. Lots of things. Everything all at once.”

“In a good way or a bad way?”

“I don’t know. The excitement part is good but everyone else is so jumpy and agitated today, it makes me even more restless and like, overwhelmed.”

“Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe just sitting in silence for a few seconds will help? And maybe get some cold water on your hands. That always helps me calm down.”

As expected, Jaiden always knew what was best. He smiled and hugged her softly while thanking her before Baghera left the bathroom, presumably the person who Jaiden had been waiting for as they both wished him luck before saying goodbye to him and going back into the gym.

He followed Jaiden's advice and took a few seconds to himself inside the otherwise empty bathroom to enjoy the silence and the feeling of the cold porcelain against his fingers. He held his hands under the cold water for about a minute after washing them. He felt a lot more grounded afterwards and went back to his teams changing room, ready for the game.

••••••••••••

The game itself was pretty eventful, unsurprisingly. The other high school team was known as a team that played unfairly. They would often foul players, they weren’t afraid to cause injuries to the other team and sometimes each other and overall were just terrible losers. Their main target was always Roier since he was the most involved player in his position as the small forward. He was basically always there, where they were. This made them quite mad, and they tried to somehow get him out of the game but luckily, they weren’t successful.

Foolish wasn’t so lucky and had to leave the court after being tripped and pushed repeatedly and ultimately injuring his ankle. He demanded to continue playing and saying he was fine, but their coach decided to switch him with Molly who was already ready to go.

Surprisingly the other team managed to score pretty well for a bit in the beginning and Roier was about get worried that they might not win this, but even with all the aggression by them, they still ended up falling behind after a few shots by Roier. This did make the other team even more aggressive but fortunately no one else got hurt.

In the end Roier’s team won by a landslide like every year. They all huddled together in a circle, celebrating loudly while jumping up and down before they ran to the side of the court to celebrate with Foolish who was sitting on the bench. All of them were super hyped and happy like they had just won the NBA finals.

The group huddle dispersed pretty quickly as everyone went to celebrate with their friends and family and Roier was almost knocked down by someone hugging him aggressively while screeching. If it wasn’t by the height of the person or the signature screeching, he would’ve known who it was the moment he was hit in the face by a cheerleading pompom. It was obviously Tina who was very excited as always.

“You did so well Ro! I’m so proud of you!”

“You don’t even know the rules of basketball. How do you know I did well?”

“I just know you did.”

“Okay well, I guess I can’t argue against your all-knowing super brain powers. You just know everything.”

“So true, I am very smart.”

She then stepped back from the hug and gave him a pat on the shoulders. “Okay gotta run, you know where to. See you later.”, and then she left, most likely to meet up with Bagi quickly before Cellbit and Bagi’s parents would pick them up.

He looked around, searching for his boyfriend. When they walked in earlier before the game started, he tried to spot him on the stands around the court, but he just couldn’t find him. At the time he thought that they may just be a bit late, maybe they got held up in traffic or something. He was way too focused while the game was still going to notice anything outside the court. There could’ve been an atomic bomb going off right next to the court and Roier would’ve probably still been focused on the ball. For a second, he worried that Cellbit didn’t make it to the game.

Suddenly he felt a finger tap on his shoulder. He turned around and finally saw his boyfriend standing in front of him. Cellbit was smiling brightly, though there was something mischievous in the look in his eyes. Before Roier could say anything, Cellbit grabbed his hand to shake it once and then pulling him by said hand into a one-armed hug as he slightly pat him on his back.

“Good job on the court man.”

For a second Roier just looked at him, completely dazed, not even being able to comprehend what his boyfriend had just done. A few seconds later he finally fully realized what he was trying to do and he had to fight his whole body to not burst out laughing. Cellbit had just delivered the most out of character awkward bro hug, Roier ever had to witness, just so that he could hug him without raising suspicion. Well, everyone who knew Cellbit and Roier a bit better and saw what just happened, was most likely very confused and suspicious but for everyone else it must have looked totally normal.

So Roier pulled him into another one-armed hug, patting him on the back as he whispered right next to his ear. “You don’t know how much I want to kiss that stupid smile off your face right now.”

They separated again and Cellbit grinned at him. “Well, the faster you get changed, the faster you can fulfill your wish.”

Since it was Friday and Roier’s parents were too busy to even show up to his game, Cellbit’s parents had offered to take Roier home with them again so that his parents could get him the next day. Meaning Roier could spend more time with his boyfriend.

He quickly nodded. “You’re so right.”, he said before turning around to go to the changing rooms.

“I will wait for you at the back entrance.”, Cellbit yelled.

••••••••••••

Everyone else from his team had already left the gym to change. Roier was the last one to enter the changing room, only to almost run into his teammates backs as they stood right in front of the door. All of them were turned toward someone standing in front of the benches where their clothes were laying. Roier pushed through the middle of two of his teammates to see what was going on.

He was met by the smug grin of Quackity who was standing right on the spot where he had his clothes neatly folded on top of the bench. He had his arms crossed and was holding something in his fist.

“What the fuck are you doing here? You’re not allowed in here?”, Roier raised an eyebrow. He was honestly not in the mood to fight with Quackity today. He just wanted to get to his boyfriend. “How did you even get inside?”

“Well, let that be my problem for now. You have some other things to explain right now.”

Roier looked at him confused before looking at his teammates. None of them seemed like they had any clue what he was talking about as well. Foolish just shrugged and Mariana rolled his eyes. “Get to it then, we don’t have all the time in the world. My parents are waiting for me.”

“Oh, don’t you worry, this will be quite quick.”, Quackity unfolded his arms and opened up his palm facing the floor, letting a necklace dangle from his fingers. On the bottom was a ring hanging from said necklace.

Roier immediately knew what that meant and felt his heart sink. It was the ring Cellbit gave to him. He never took off the necklace except in the shower and when he was doing sports out of fear of hurting himself or others. He always put it right on top of his clothes so that he could put it on immediately when they got back to the changing room.

Roier felt like throwing up as he watched Quackity’s grin growing. He knew. He knew everything. There was no way that he didn’t make the connection with that look on his face. And he couldn’t do anything about it because if Roier tried to stop him now, it would look even more suspicious, and his teammates would definitely ask him what was going on. And even if he did manage to avoid it now, Quackity knew the truth so he could just say it whenever. There was no way of stopping it now.

“You want to explain what this is then?”, Quackity tauntingly letting the necklace dangle in front of his eyes.

“Give it back.”, he murmured and tried to grab it.

Quackity quickly pulled back, making him miss it by a few millimeters. “Not so fast, you will get it back. I have no intention of keeping this shit. But I think you should explain to your teammates what this is first.”

Roier looked at the floor, refusing to look anyone in the eyes. Foolish and Mariana didn’t know about the necklace, but they seemed to catch on that something was wrong. “Hey man just leave it. He doesn’t need to explain anything to us.”, Foolish said.

“No, I think he does. But it’s okay, if you won’t do it, I will.”, the amount of smugness in his voice made Roier feel even more sick. It felt like he’s been waiting for this moment for ages.

Roier balled his fist together, but he knew that he couldn’t do anything. Hitting Quackity would raise even more suspicion, not only by his teammates but by the whole school and his parents. And again, it wouldn’t stop him from talking.

“So, as you can see this is a necklace. A necklace with a ring on it.”

“Wow, great observation, can we move on now?”, Mariana said, clearly annoyed.

“Almost. A little birdie told me about what wearing a ring means in Brazilian culture. Pac is not here right now but Malena, you’re Brazilian, can you explain to everyone what the anel de compromisso is?”

“Uh, it’s a promise ring. You give it to your partner if you’re in a serious and committed relationship.”, she explained, obviously not knowing why this mattered.

“Exactly that. Now, do you guys know any Brazilian who recently started wearing a ring?”, Roier felt lightheaded as he waited for anyone to answer. No one said anything. It wasn’t like Cellbit had been going around, showing people the ring. The Brazilian students had come up to him and asked him about it and Pac had been gossiping a little here and there from what Roier knew but it wasn’t like lots of people even knew who he was since he was still pretty knew to the school.

“Well, I can tell you guys. It’s Cellbit.”, he took a dramatic pause. “And funnily enough it’s the same ring that Roier has on this little necklace here.”, in the corner of his eye, he saw Mariana and Foolish exchange looks and then looking at him.

“What are you talking about? Why would they wear the same ring?”, Fit piped in. Roier barely registered the door to the changing room opening but he didn’t even care anymore as he was fighting back tears and cursing out Quackity in his head.

“I’m so glad that you asked Fit. It’s because they are dating. Because Roier likes men, isn’t that right?”, Quackity waved the necklace in front of Roier’s eyes before dropping it. Even though the rest of his body was frozen, Roier quickly reached out to catch the necklace.

“Wait what?”, Molly, Fit and Malena exclaimed, looking at Roier in shock, waiting for an answer. He was still looking at the ground, clenching his fist around the necklace. His silence was apparently enough and suddenly he heard more exclamations from the open door.

He looked up and turned around to where all the noise was coming from and saw a bunch of people standing in front of the door. It was a few students, friends, partners and parents of his team members. Some of them had little party hats and congratulations banners on. They probably wanted to surprise the whole team after their victory. He almost passed out when he saw his parents faces in the little group of people in front of the door.

His father squeezed through the little crowd toward him, his mother following. Everybody suddenly made space for them, even his teammates and Quackity moved away once they were inside. It was just him, facing his parents in front of everyone else. He had never felt so small and weak before.

“Is that true? What he just said? Are you gay?”, his father’s loud booming voice made everyone around them go quiet. Not a single sound was heard, as people held their breaths.

“What- What are you d-doing here? I- I thought you were-“, Roier stammered out.

“Answer my question.”, his father shouted back angrily.

Roier looked up at his father with tears in his eyes. He debated for a second to just lie and deny it again. But he knew that this day was going to come sooner or later. He knew that he couldn’t hide this forever. And since he started dating Cellbit, he didn’t want to, either. He felt all the hair on his body stand up in anxiety but also with adrenaline as, this was it. This was the moment of truth. He mustered up all of his strength and without stuttering managed to say,

“Yes, dad. I am gay.”

He heard a few quiet gasps coming from the people around him. He guessed that some people weren’t sure how believable Quackity’s story was but now he had actually confirmed it. He then saw his dad raising his hand and the next thing he knew was his head flinging to the side and his cheek stinging in pain. The sound of his father’s hand colliding with his cheek echoed through the room. He heard more gasps and some commotion around them.

From the corner of his eye, he saw Foolish taking a step towards them, only to be stopped by Mariana. He knew Foolish would try to come to his defense, so he was grateful that Mariana stopped him. His dad might not be a trained fighter, but he could and definitely would hurt Foolish. His parents never liked him in the first place so Roier knew that his dad wouldn’t hesitate to hurt him.

“You disgust me. You are a disgrace. A Sinner like you doesn’t belong in the family. I don’t want such filth in my house any longer.”, his father spat angrily before turning around and stomping out the door.

Roier looked at his mother, who had just been quietly standing behind her husband. He looked at her with tears in his eyes, praying that she would do something. Even though his mother was strict, she was usually the empathetic one who stood up for her children.

“How could you do this to our family? Haven’t you done enough?”, she shook her head in disappointment. “And don’t you dare ever getting near your sister again.”, she said before following her husband.

He didn’t know what sentence broke his heart the more, but the last one gave him the last push he needed before he finally lost it. He could live with being thrown out of the house and completely disowned by his family, but not being allowed near his dear baby sister? Roier gave up on trying to hold it together. He turned around again to where Quackity was standing. For a split second he thought about hitting him in the face, but he decided he was better than that.

“I hope you’re happy now. I really hope you’re satisfied with yourself.”, he said coldly, his voice dripping in sarcasm. To his surprise, Quackity did not look happy or satisfied at all. He looked quite shocked at what had just happened.

Roier grabbed all of his stuff before storming out the door as well, pushing through the crowd of people. Some of them tried to stop him, maybe to offer him some nice words or condolences or maybe even help but that wasn’t what Roier needed right now. He was running towards the back entrance of the gym, tears streaming down his face. He almost stumbled out the door, but he was caught by two warm arms catching him.

“Hey hey, guapito, what happened? Are you okay?”

“He found out Cellbit. And now they know. My parents know. Everyone knows. They kicked me out Cellbit.”

Chapter Text

When Bagi got the information about the basketball game happening, she really wasn’t interested at all. She was never a big sports fan, especially not team sports and the only reason why she would go was because her brother asked her to come for emotional support. He didn’t like sports either and needed someone to entertain him, apart from his boyfriend.

But then Tina told her that she’d be there to perform in the beginning and at half time and that’s what really made her want to go. Especially after finding out that Roier got them free tickets. And she was even more hyped up to find out that not only would her gorgeous girlfriend be there but also that there were two pretty girls on the basketball team who, according to Tina were super pretty and cool. Which Bagi guessed was her way of saying that they were really hot. So, another reason to actually go.

Bagi ended up being at the gym before Cellbit as he had to go back halfway to get his ticket to the game. Luckily, she was smart enough to get her own ticket, so she arrived early enough. Before the game or the performances started, Bagi went into the supply closet nearest to the gym. She carefully put a bouquet of flowers in there that she was going to give Tina after the game as a surprise. She then went to sit down to watch her girlfriends performance. As always, she looked gorgeous as she effortlessly flew through the air with a bright smile on her face that light up when she saw her in the crowd.

When the players ran onto the court, Cellbit still wasn’t there but he messaged her that he was only 5 minutes away. Tina hadn’t promised too much about the female players on the team, they did indeed look very hot. She saw Roier scanning the crowd, most likely looking for her brother. He didn’t spot her and furrowed his eyebrows for a second when he couldn’t find his boyfriend before he turned back to his teammates.

A few minutes after the game started, Cellbit finally showed up and sat down next to her onto the bleachers next to the court. He was a bit out of breath as he probably walked pretty fast, Bagi knew he had terrible stamina.

The game itself ended up not being as interesting for either of them but the players were very nice to look at, both of them agreed. After the halfway break performance of the cheerleading team, Tina snuck her way up to them and sat next to Bagi. None of them really knew the rules of basketball, which made the whole game even funnier to them. They commented what they thought was going on as if they were Sport commentators even though it was most likely wrong. The only thing they knew was that they were winning. They really enjoyed themselves and were so proud of Roier as he seemed to be doing somewhat good by the crowds responses to him having the ball.

Nearing the end of the game, Tina had to go down again to her team but the two of them agreed to meet up in the supply closet next to the gym, before their parents would get her, Cellbit and Roier. After the game ended with their team winning, Bagi saw Tina running over to her best friend and hugging him excitedly. She smiled softly seeing that because they were being adorable before she made her way over from the supply closet. It took her a while to get there as she had to navigate through the masses of people in the gym.

When she finally reached it, Tina was already there somehow. She was smiling brightly, bouncing with energy and radiating such happiness that Bagi couldn’t help but smile as well.

“Hey love.”, Bagi hugged her as soon as the door closed behind her. Tina hugged her back.

“Hey angel.”, Tina pulled back from the hug to kiss her gently. They stayed like this for a bit, just embracing each other and enjoying being close together.

“You looked so good today. I could barely stop looking at you. With that unnecessarily short skirt.”, she said in a low voice.

Tina blushed a little at her words but grinned. “I’m glad you liked my outfit. I felt really good today.”

“As you should. You look gorgeous, you performed like there was no tomorrow and your best friend won the game. Literally no reason to not feel good.”

“Thank you. I’m really happy right now. I just wish I could’ve kissed you right there on the bleachers. You look so cool today with that turtleneck.”, she started to play with the hem of said turtle neck.

“How do you think I felt? Having to watch you in that outfit and not even being able to put a hand on your thigh when you sat next to me? It was terrible.”

Tina laughed a little. “Well, I’m glad we were both suffering then.”

Bagi almost forget about the bouquet that she had hidden behind a shelf, but she suddenly remembered and pulled back from their embrace, getting the flowers.

“I almost forgot, I got these for you.”, she pulled out a pink, purple and orange colored bouquet of flowers from behind one of the shelves.

Tina’s face light up even more as she took the bouquet from her hands. “Wow this is so beautiful. Thank you, angel! These are my favorite colors.”

“Yeah, I know.”

They smiled at each other for a little longer until Bagi’s phone let out a notification sound. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket to see a message from her parents.

“They are here now, gotta go. Sorry love.”, Bagi placed a kiss on Tina’s forehead.

“It’s fine, I’m pretty sure my parents are going to be here soon so I will have to go as well.”

“See you on Monday, love.”

“Bye angel.”

And with that Bagi left the supply closet and went out the main entrance to the parking lot where she spotted her parents car. The parking lot was located to the side and the back corner of the building, between the main entrance and the back entrance to the gym. The car was standing more towards the back entrance.

As she entered the car, she saw Cellbit leaning against the wall next to the back entrance. Her mother informed her that he was waiting for Roier since he was coming with them today and didn’t know what their car looked like. She nodded and scrolled through her phone, sending Tina a picture she took of her during the performance.

Suddenly she heard a loud noise of a door being slammed open and a sob coming from outside, through the rolled down window on her dad’s side. She looked up to where Cellbit was standing and immediately sat up as she saw Roier throw himself into her brothers arm, tears running down his cheeks. Her parents looked at each other and then at her with worried looks. She quickly got out of the car.

She walked over to them, watching them as she got closer. Cellbit’s first reaction of concern immediately faded to anger at whatever Roier just told him. He was holding Roier tightly as he was rubbing his back in a comforting manner, but his face showed pure anger. Roier had his face buried in the crook of Cellbit’s neck, gripping his shirt tightly.

“Hey what’s going on?”

“I’m going to kill someone.”, he mumbled coldly.

Bagi had only ever seen this much anger on her brother’s face a few times. Like when they were younger, going to a school in Spain and Bagi was being bullied. When her bullies said something bad about her to Cellbit’s face, the exact same stone-cold anger from back then, was on his face now. Which meant he was serious, this was not a minor thing. Cellbit rarely got angry and if he did it was over minor things like when he’d lose in a video game. He’d yell a bit but then he’d be fine. This was not that type of anger.

While Cellbit rarely got angry, he even more rarely got violent. In most situations Cellbit was a pacifist. He’d never hurt someone for no reason. Even if there was a good reason, like out of self-defense, Cellbit still tended to rather not use violence. But the look on his face told Bagi that he was not going to hold back. He might actually hurt someone with his angry he was right now. She knew how her brother could get in these types of situations, it was hard for him to think straight because all he could think about was how angry he was.

Bagi put a hand on his shoulder, the two of them had their eyes locked while Cellbit was softly stroking his boyfriend’s hair.

“Cellbit. Don’t. Take a deep breath.”, she could see him listening to her instructions. “He’s your priority now. Everything else we can do later.”, she saw him nod a little.

Bagi put a hand on Roier’s shoulder. “Hey Roier, it’s me. Let’s get you out of here, okay? Can you walk?”

Roier looked up at her, his eyes were red and swollen and there were tears and snot still running down his face, he nodded a little. Cellbit loosened his tight grip on Roier and helped him walk over their parents car. Bagi took Roier’s bag that had been abandoned on the floor. Next to it was Roier’s necklace that he must have dropped at some point. She picked it up at well before following the boys.

The two of them got into the back of the car, with Roier sitting in the middle. Bagi had put the bag in the trunk and then sat down next to Roier. He must have realized that he lost the necklace as his eyes widened in panic when he touched his neck for it.

“Don’t panic. I got it. Should I put it on you?”

Roier breathed out in relief and nodded weakly. She carefully put it around his neck and closed it in the back. When she was done, he leaned against Cellbit’s shoulder, who pulled him closer and held one of his hands.

“Do you want to tell us what happened? Or maybe later?”, her mother asked as they started driving.

She watched Cellbit and Roier exchange a few looks before Roier sniffled quietly and started speaking, still holding Cellbit’s hand in support.

“Quackity got into the changing room and found the necklace. He must have connected the dots immediately a-and because he’s an asshole, decided to tell my whole team about it. For some reason, my parents were there and heard the last part where he outed me for liking men. My dad slapped me, and they- they kicked me out of the house. And then I ran away.”

For a few seconds there was only silence as they were all stunned by what had just come out of Roier’s mouth. Her eyes widened in shock, and she grabbed Roier’s free hand which was shaking. Roier smiled back at her weakly, squeezing her hand. The look on Cellbit’s face darkened even more with anger. She saw him take a deep breath and squeezing Roier’s hand.

“I am so sorry.”, her mother said from the passenger seat and turned around to them. “I don’t know what else to say, I’m sorry. That’s awful Roier. Is your face, okay? Does it hurt much?”

Roier cleared his throat. “No, I- I think it’s fine. Th-Thank you.”, he said, his voice breaking in between like he was about to cry again. He looked like he was holding back the tears.

“You can cry sweetheart, you’re safe now. They can’t hurt you now that you’re with us. Don’t worry, you’re okay.”, her mother put a hand on Roier’s knee, and he immediately let out a wet sob before burying his face in Cellbit’s shoulder who wrapped his arms around him.

The rest of the car ride was mostly silent apart from quiet sobs coming from Roier and some whispered, comforting words by her and Cellbit. When their father stopped the car in front of the garage, he finally turned around to Roier to look at him.

“You can obviously stay with us if you want to, for as long as you want to. We can get your stuff maybe when your parents aren’t home. I will not let you go back there alone.”

Roier looked up to their father before nodding. “Thank you so much.”, he whispered to them.

“No need to thank us, you’re part of the family like we said.”, her father gave him a comforting smile. Bagi could see Roier nodding a little, trying to hold back tears again.

They got out of the car and went inside in somber silence. Roier and Cellbit went into the latter’s room, just for Roier to get some space and rest a bit. Bagi stayed in the kitchen area with her parents.

“How can a parent be like that to their child? Aren’t you supposed to love your children no matter what?”, she exclaimed, still distraught over what Roier had told them.

“Well, that’s the ideal case obviously but in reality, there are some parents who do have some conditions and expectations. This does go too far though.”, her dad said.

“I wish we could do something. Like they can’t just get away with this.”, she huffed angrily.

“I know you do but it’s not that unlikely that they will get away with it. Depending on what’s going to happen now, if they change their mind and take Roier back in or if they stay true to their word, there could be some legal consequences. But their reputation is ruined for sure. Most parents seem to be more openminded from what I’ve heard.”, her mother pat her shoulder in a comforting way.

“I doubt that they care about their reputation.”, she mumbled.

Suddenly their conversation was interrupted by her phone ringing. She never got a phone call, so she pulled out her phone, it was Tina. She picked up immediately.

“Hey, everything alright?”

“Please tell me he’s with you guys.”, she could hear Tina’s voice breaking slightly like she was near tears. Bagi made the connection instantly.

“Yes, he’s home with us now. Don’t worry.”

“Oh, thank god. I-Is he okay? Please- please tell me he’s fine. Can I talk to him?”, Tina stumbled through her words, sobbing in between.

“Physically, he’s fine. Mentally, I don’t know. Let me ask him if he wants to talk.”, with her phone in hand, Bagi left the kitchen to go upstairs to Cellbit’s room. She knocked gently. Cellbit’s voice from the other side of the door told her to come in.

She opened the door to see Roier lying in bed, being spooned by Cellbit. His hair was still wet from taking a shower. They had both changed into more comfortable clothes, Roier was wearing an oversized hoodie of Cellbit’s.

“It’s Tina. She wants to talk to you to know that you’re okay. Are you fine with that?”, she said while looking at Roier.

He nodded quickly and waved her inside, making otherwise no effort to move and just stayed like he was.

“You can stay here, put the phone on speaker.”

Bagi did as told and put the phone on the bedside table, putting the call on speaker before sitting down in the armchair. “He’s here now, love. You’re on speaker.”

“Ro?”, Tina called out.

“Hey, I’m here.”

He was answered by a few seconds of silence. She watched his eyebrows furrow as he sat up a little to look at her phone if the call was still connected. “Tina?”

“Yeah, I’m still here sorry. I can’t be too loud because I’m home and that almost made me cry again. God, are you okay? Foolish told me what happened.”, Bagi could her hear voice getting wobbly again.

Roier sighed before answering. “No, I’m not okay. Well physically, yes but mentally not really. But I think I will be okay eventually.”

“I’m so sorry I couldn’t be there or call earlier. My parents came right when Foolish told me, and they met your parents on their way. So, they already knew and obviously they didn’t react well to it so I couldn’t do or say anything. I had to listen to them curse you out and just say just terrible things. Not only about you but also about Cellbit. It was awful. I was so worried because Foolish and everyone else just saw you run away and god Ro, you don’t want to know what scenarios I was imagining.”, Tina rambled on. All three of them were listening to her in silence, Cellbit pulling Roier closer to his chest during the end of her rambling.

“You don’t need to apologize Tina. It’s not like you could’ve done much. I can imagine how scary that must have been. But I’m okay. I ran outside to where Cellbit told me he’d wait for me and then we pretty much immediately left. I’m going to stay here as well.”

Tina let out a sigh of relief. “Good, that’s good. That’s really good.”

“I don’t even know why my parents were there.”

“They were planning to surprise you. That’s why they didn’t tell you that they’d be there. They did tell me, but I didn’t say anything to you because I didn’t want to ruin the surprise. I thought it was nice of them, that they finally wanted to do something like this for you. I know you wanted them to be there for your game. I didn’t think that it would lead to this”, Tina admitted sadly.

“You couldn’t have known. No one could’ve seen Quackity breaking into the changing rooms coming.”

“I still don’t get how he could do such a thing. To out someone in front of his team and classmates. Like sure he couldn’t have known about the surprise, but his original plan is still such a fucked up thing to do. He himself is bi, so why would be do that?”, Cellbit piped in.

“Because he’s an asshole. That’s all the explanation you need.”, Roier mumbled. Cellbit nodded in agreement.

“At least I’m pretty sure that this will backfire for him more than it will affect you in school. Like yeah people are weird and going to be weird about it in the beginning but no one likes people who out other people. Especially after so many people witnessed what happened with your parents. I doubt people are going to take his side.”, she chimed in.

“Yeah, I guess that’s true. I’d still rather have them take his side than whatever is going to happen now.”, Roier looked over at her.

“Yeah of course.”

“Foolish told me that your dad asked you if you were gay and you said yes. Why did you say it? You could’ve just lied to your parents.”, Tina asked.

“I know, but this situation was going to happen sooner or later. I was not going to hide forever. Also, I don’t know how believable I could have lied. Last time this happened, I just said that I was in love with Tina, but I couldn’t really say that again. And now it’s out there. So at least we don’t have to hide anymore, I guess that is good.”

“That’s fair, I just wish it didn’t have the consequences it had.”

Roier only hummed in agreement, silence came over the four of them before Tina broke it.

“I’m glad you’re okay Ro. I’m going to try and come over soon if my parents let me. You should rest now, okay? I’ll see you on Monday.”

“See you on Monday, Tina.”

They all said their goodbyes and before Tina ended the call, she heard a strange noise that Bagi couldn’t really assign to a source, so she didn’t think much of it. She stood up to take her phone again, looking down to her brother and Roier lying in bed.

“I’m going to leave you guys alone now. Try to rest a bit Roier.”, she said, patting Roier’s head softly before leaving.

===============

Their parents stayed true to their word and the next day, them and Roier and Cellbit went to Roier’s house to get some of his stuff as they were at his grandparents that day. Bagi didn’t come with them so that they had more space in the car and because she was way too worried about Tina.

Since the call the day prior, there had been complete radio silence from her girlfriend which was very unusual of her. Normally they’d text each other a lot just because they couldn’t talk a lot in real life. And even if they hadn’t talked that much, they’d at least sent each other good morning and good night texts. Tina hadn’t read any of her texts so far and it was already the middle of the day when the rest of her family left.

Realistically she knew that she might just be busy or that things were a bit tense at home with the recent developments but nonetheless, Bagi was worried that something might have happened with her parents. Roier had told her that she hadn’t read any of his messages as well which made her even more concerned.

“They do take her phone away sometimes when they are being unreasonably angry at something. Wouldn’t be the first time.”, he told her.

Bagi sighed before looking up from the breakfast table to Roier. Her parents and Cellbit were outside, cleaning out the car to make space for Roier’s stuff. She leaned forward a bit.

“Normally I’d rather ask this her herself, but I can’t right now, so you have to be honest with me.”, Roier nodded slightly, titling his head to side a little in curiosity. “Do they hit her?”

Roier shook his head. “No, from what she’s told me and what I’ve seen, they’ve never laid hands on her.”, she let out a sigh of relief.

“Tina’s parents are very conservative like she said. They have strict expectations for her to be the perfect daughter that they want. They don’t really care about her feelings or opinions on these expectations but no I don’t think they would hit her.”

“Thank you Roier. I’m glad we can help you now, I just wish it didn’t have to be under these circumstances.”

“Yeah, I feel like this was a long time coming. It was going to happen eventually, I am glad that I met you guys or else I would’ve probably slept on the street.”, Roier furrowed his eyebrows at that thought before looking up at Bagi with a small smile.

“Can I hug you?”

“Of course.”

The two of them stood up and shared a warm hug. While their friendship had quite a rocky start with the jealousy over a fake relationship, Bagi found herself getting more and more fond of Roier every day. He quickly became a good friend of hers who she would now trust blindly. She might even go as far as to say that he was like a brother to her in a way. Which was weird considering he was dating her brother but who cares about the technicalities. All she knew was that she felt the need to protect him from the dark and evil world like her life depended on it. Roier was family now.

“Try not to worry too much. Tina will be fine. She’s very strong.”, Roier rubbed her back slightly.

“Yeah, I know that, but I wish she didn’t have to be, you know? I can’t help but worry about her.”

“Oh, believe me, I get it. I’m honestly such a hypocrite for telling you not to worry too much when that’s literally all I’ve been doing for years.” They both laughed at that.

===============

The rest of the weekend was pretty calm. They got Roier’s stuff, and he fully moved into Cellbit’s room. Both of them seemed more than happy about this arrangement even with the circumstances that led to this. It made sense, if the same thing happened to Tina, Bagi would also love having her girlfriend around her 24/7 without having to pretend like she wasn’t madly in love with her. That was the dream.

Speaking of her girlfriend though, Tina had still not answered any of Bagi’s messages. Her calls were also met with no answer, so she had no other choice but wait anxiously until Monday morning.

On Monday morning, the three of them left the house with Cellbit and Roier holding hands for the first time out in public. She couldn’t help but feel a bit jealous but her happiness for them overshadowed that. And her anxiety about seeing Tina today, or possibly not seeing her, didn’t allow her mind to go much elsewhere.

Luckily her first class was Spanish with Tina, so she didn’t have to wait much longer to see her. When she entered the classroom, Tina was already there, sitting at her desk. She looked a bit more tired than usual but seemed fine apart from that. They locked eyes and Bagi felt her anxiety fade away slightly. Tina also visibly relaxed and smiled at her a little. Foolish and Jaiden who were sitting next to her, seemed to notice this immediately as they were in the middle of talking and looked up to see who Tina was looking at. Both of them smiled as well and waved at her. She waved back with a slight smile.

The only free seat left was right in front of Tina, so she had no other choice but sit there. She could feel her eyes on her as she went to sit down. She wanted to ask Tina so many questions, but she knew she couldn’t, not here and not right now. She did have to ask her at least one thing though. Bagi pulled out her pencils and her notebook. So, she ripped off a corner of her notebook before scribbling on it:

Please tell me that you’re okay. I was so worried

She turned around and put it on Tina’s desk, turning around quickly when their teacher entered the room. It only took a few moments but to Bagi it felt like waiting for eternity until she finally felt a tap on her shoulder. Tina put a piece of paper in her hand once she had turned around. She carefully unfolded it under her desk.

Yes, I’m okay. Let’s talk in the supply closet after class

It felt like a wave of relief had just washed over her as she read those words written in Tina’s neat handwriting. Now she just had to wait for this class to end.

===============

After what felt like ages, Spanish class finally ended and Bagi was the first one to storm out of the room. She quickly made it to the supply closet and slipped inside. Her bag ended up being thrown in the corner as she immediately started pacing up and down the room, waiting for her girlfriend.

It took her a bit but after a few minutes, the door was finally opened and Tina stepped inside. She could barely hold herself back as Tina closed the door and immediately took as step towards her to hug her.

“Please be okay, love. Please tell me no one hurt you. Jesus Christ, I was so worried all weekend.”, Bagi whispered as she pressed herself against Tina’s body. Her girlfriend had her arms wrapped around her too, hugging her tightly as well.

“Hey to you too. Yes, I am fine. No one hurt me. I’m okay.”, she replied. Hearing it directly from her mouth felt even better than just reading it, so Bagi sighed with relief.

“Thank god. You don’t know how scared I was.”

“I’m sorry. They took away my phone after our call. I’m really sorry, I didn’t want to worry you so much.”

She pulled back a little to look at her, bringing her hands up to cradle her face in them.

“You don’t need to apologize. Roier told me that this was probably what happened. It’s not your fault.”, she pressed a kiss on Tina’s forehead.

“They don’t want me to see Roier, Cellbit or Foolish or any of my queer friends again because they could influence me into being gay or something.”

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Yeah, that’s what thought too but oh well, I guess that’s just my parents. Ugh they said so many awful things about Roier and I couldn’t do anything.”

“I’m so sorry that you have to hear all that love.”

Tina smiled at her sadly before leaning in to connect their foreheads. Both of them closed their eyes and just stood there for a few seconds in silence.

“Do you think they will let you come over to ours? I think everyone will soon figure out that Roier lives with us.”

“I don’t know. They don’t know about you being lesbian so maybe that could be a plus point. But the fact that you guys took in Roier is definitely going to decrease the chances.”

“So, we might see each other even less often than before?”, Bagi pulled back a little and opened her eyes to look at Tina. She tucked a loose strand behind her ears, caressing her cheek with her thumb afterwards.

“Maybe, I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t let me see any of my friends anymore at this point. I think they only really agree with Jaiden and you. I’m sorry, angel.”

“Love, you know that this is not your fault. We can do this. Maybe we can stay longer in school sometimes, so you can tell your parents that you’re studying. We will figure something out.”

===============

Originally Bagi wanted to wait a little bit longer to give Tina the anel de compromisso. Even though she knew that she wanted to give it to her after dating for only a week, she really didn’t want to rush Tina. She knew that Tina was still overwhelmed and insecure about being in a relationship, even if she didn’t show it that much anymore. She didn’t want Tina to feel pressured to accept the ring. It was actually really good that Cellbit gave Roier his ring first because now Tina knew what it meant and how their relationship changed afterwards.

The ring being involved in the outing of their relationship and Roier’s sexuality, definitely wasn’t a positive thing but Bagi decided to still go for it. Especially since both Tina and Bagi knew that they would be spending even less time together for at least a few weeks. With winter break only being a few days away, it really didn’t give them any hopes of being able to meet up. Tina had carefully asked her parents about meeting her and they had immediately said that Tina was not going back to “that house” anytime soon.

Bagi felt like giving her the ring would not only be a good Christmas gift but also something physical for her to hold onto when she missed her during winter break. And even though Roier got outed because of it, he was still wearing it, now proudly on his finger and Bagi just felt like that said a lot.

So, on their last day before winter break, Bagi would give Tina the ring when they would meet up one last time for this year. She was super nervous about it but also really excited. She knew about Tina’s reaction to Roier’s ring, and she really hoped she would be just as excited about her own ring.

She was waiting in one of the empty classrooms for Tina to come inside, pacing nervously up and down with her gift bag in hand. Her bag and jacket were lazily thrown over a chair. Logically she knew that Tina would probably like the gift, but it still felt like such a big step to her for some reason. Maybe because she had never tried to push Tina’s boundaries and always let her make the first step.

A few minutes later Tina finally opened the door and slipped inside after spotting Bagi. She was wearing an adorable Christmas sweater that went over her thighs and covered her fingers, giving her sweater paws. She looked super cute, as always.

“Hey love”, Bagi put down the gift bag on a table before embracing Tina in a warm hug and a small kiss.

“Hey angel.”, Tina whispered after the kiss, before kissing her again. They stayed like that for a few moments before separating.

“Merry Christmas! But you have to wait until Christmas Eve to unwrap it!”, Tina said excitedly as she put a small red paper bag in her hands with a huge smile on her face.

Bagi grinned at her before nodding in agreement. “For mine, you have to wait for Christmas Eve, apart from one gift. I want to be there to see your reaction so you can open it now.”, she fished out the small square like gift out of the bag which was wrapped in white paper with little red snowflakes on it.

Tina tilted her head to the side in confusion before taking it out of Bagi’s face. To be very honest, Bagi was surprised how Tina hadn’t made the connection yet. She would’ve thought that this was something Tina had been waiting for. She had actually expected Tina to ask her about the ring back when Cellbit gave Roier his ring. But she had never said anything apart from how cute she thought this tradition was.

Tina unwrapped the gift. A small red velvet box appeared. Tina looked up at Bagi with confusion, but she just smiled and whispered,

“Open it”

Tina did just that and Bagi saw her eyes go wide as she stared at the silver rings in front of her. The rings had a simple design of a big white stripe made of tiny white stones wrapped around the whole ring and the rim being just silver.

“I was going to wait a bit longer, but it just felt right to give you the anel de compromisso now. If you don’t want to wear it, that’s totally fine. Though I don’t think you need to be too worried that someone might make the connection. I wear tons of other rings already, an additional ring won’t be noticed. And as far as I know, no one has it out for you like Quackity had for Roier. But if you want to wait or just wear it around a necklace, that’s fine as well.”, she went of rambling while Tina was still staring at the rings in silence. Bagi could not read her expression at all which was why she continued to ramble anxiously.

“If you don’t like it that’s fine too. We can still change it. Or if you don’t want a ring at all-“

“I love it.”, Tina interrupted her whispering quietly. “It’s beautiful.”, She finally turned to look at Bagi, with a big smile on her face.

“I’m glad you like it.”, Bagi smiled while feeling the relief wash over her.

“This is the best Christmas gift ever. You’re the best. Actually, the best girlfriend ever.”, Tina carefully sat down the box on the table before taking Bagi’s face in her hands and kissing her softly. Bagi couldn’t help but smile into the kiss. After the kiss, Tina excitedly grabbed the box again.

“I will ask Roier for his necklace and then I will wear it like he did.”

“Sounds perfect to me.”

Bagi carefully took out one of the rings, holding Tina’s right hand in hers and putting it on her ring finger before kissing the top of it with a bright smile on her lips. Tina squealed quietly in excitement before they changed positions. Tina took the second ring and put it on Bagi’s right ring finger and copied her gesture of kissing the top of it.

Chapter Text

To say that Cellbit was angry was an understatement.

Seeing Roier burst out the door, legs giving up under him and almost falling to the ground with tears streaming down his face. It broke his heart. He was supposed to be happy and celebrating the incredible game he had just won. Instead, he was still in his basketball jersey standing in the cold, crying. Cellbit had never seen him like this and in that moment, he decided to make sure that Roier would never have to cry like this ever again. After then hearing his boyfriend’s broken sobs about what happened, his blood started boiling. In his crying state, Roier didn’t really specify who told what to his parents, but Cellbit wasn’t that dumb and quickly connected the dots.

Quackity had to have told everyone, including Roier’s parents, about his sexuality.

The moment he connected the dots, Cellbit was fuming and had to force himself not to squeeze Roier too hard as to not hurt him. In his mind he was listing all the ways possible he could hurt Quackity and make him suffer as much as possible. Anger thrummed through his veins and made him dizzy, but he forced himself to try and balance himself for Roier’s sake. They were both holding onto each other, Roier was clutching at him like a lifeline while Cellbit was holding him to stop himself from storming inside to punch Quackity.

He couldn’t think about anything else until Bagi put her hand on his shoulder, forcing him to lock eyes with her. He took a deep breath when she told him to and slowly felt the fog in his mind clear. She was right, Roier’s well-being was his first priority at the moment. He tried to push away all his angry thoughts about Quackity and just fully focus on Roier.

In the past he had problems controlling his anger sometimes, though Cellbit always thought his anger was reasonable. In previous schools, both him and Bagi had to suffer from bullying multiple times. He never really cared that much if people bullied him. Sure, in the beginning it hurt but he always had his sister, so he never felt like he was alone. Bagi took the bullying a lot harder than he did and would often cry when other students said mean things about her. He hated seeing the people that he loved cry, so any time Bagi cried over her bullies, he got this immense rage pulsating through his veins.

He had rarely acted on this anger, most of the time he had managed to let it out in a healthy environment, like during sports. He had only gotten into actually physical altercations with other students twice. Both fights resulted in him getting thrown out of the Jiujitsu club him and Bagi went to. And because Bagi didn’t want to do it without him, she quit quickly afterwards.

He got angry once more in the car, when Roier told them, what exactly had happened with Quackity. Hearing the details of it made him almost explode with anger. How could one human be so cruel? And how could a parent treat their child like this just because of their sexuality? Roier squeezed his hands when he noticed how tense he got, and he forced himself to only think about this boyfriend for now. His safety was more important than anything else and he knew that Roier needed him right now.

Once they got home, Roier took a quick shower since he was still sweaty from his game and they both changed into comfortable clothes to lay down in bed. Roier had brought his own change of clothes, but he specifically asked for a hoodie from Cellbit. Seeing him in one of his oversized hoodies made his heart pick up its pace. They cuddled in his bed for a little while before Bagi came in with Tina on the phone.

Cellbit was very glad that the two could talk. Tina knew Roier better than anyone else and understood his situation better than Cellbit or Bagi ever could. Hearing how relieved Tina was upon hearing Roier made him swallow hard. Just thinking about being in her position, not knowing what happened to Roier made the hair at the back of his neck stand up. He felt Roier physically relax a bit more during the call and he seemed a lot less tense when Bagi left, and they finally got some time alone.

Roier turned around in his arms to look at him. Their legs were entangled and Roier backed off a little to be able to look at him properly. He still had his arm thrown over his waist as Roier brushed his hair out of his face.

“Hey guapito.”, he whispered, meeting Roier’s dark eyes. His eyes looked exhausted and so sad that Cellbit felt his heart sink again. He couldn’t even imagine how Roier must be feeling right now.

“Hi gatinho.”, Roier replied with a small smile on his lips that didn’t really reach his eyes.

“How do you feel right now?”

“Defeated. Exhausted. Sad? I don’t know. It’s like everything at once but also nothing at all. I don’t really want to think about it anymore to be honest. It just makes me feel frustrated and depressed. But I also can’t help but think about it.”, he let out a frustrated groan and rubbed over his face.

He hummed before placing a soft kiss on Roier lips.

“And how do you feel about all of this?”, Roier asked him back.

“Angry. Really really angry. Like so angry that I don’t know if I can hold back when I see Quackity the next time. I wish I could make everyone who is the reason for your tears suffer, guapito. You don’t deserve to feel like this.”

Roier’s hand softly caressed his cheek with his thumb, holding his jaw gently.

“Please don’t beat up Quackity. The school is super strict with violence. They will kick you out, I can guarantee you that. They’ve done it before, and they will do it again. I don’t want you to get kicked out.”

He sighed but then nodded. “Okay I will try my best-“

“No, Cellbit, you have to promise me. Don’t hurt him.”, Roier said in a sterner voice, holding up his pinky finger. Cellbit spotted the ring on his ring finger and smiled a little, he didn’t even notice that he had put it on. He then interlocked his pinky with Roier’s.

“Okay I promise I won’t hurt him.”

“Good”, Roier let go of his hand and sighed quietly. “What a mess.”

“I know but I think we will be fine. It will take some time, but we can do this.”, Cellbit said as calmly as he could, not only trying to reassure Roier but also convince himself of his own words. He knew that scary times were ahead of them and that the next few days and weeks would probably change a lot in Roier’s life. Today already changed everything for him but the consequences of today will become more apparent in the next days, weeks and months. But right now, he needed his boyfriend to believe that at some point, things would get better. He knew that Roier would need all the support he could get with whatever was going to happen in the near future.

“Everything will be fine. I will make sure of that, guapito. I promise that you will never be alone.”

Roier nodded slightly and whispered
“Thank you, gatinho.”, and scooted closer to him, hiding in the crook of Cellbit’s neck and hugging his waist.

“I just want to sleep now.”, he felt him mumble against his skin. Cellbit’s hand automatically found it’s place in Roier’s hair, softly combing through it.

“Yes, rest a little. I will wake you up when dinner is ready.”

••••••••••••

After they were done with dinner, his dad asked all of them to stay seated. Cellbit was sitting next to Roier, opposite of his sister and father while his mother said at the head of the table on Roier’s side.

“There are a few things I feel like we should talk about and sort out.”, his dad started.

“Roier, you can obviously stay with us as long as you need. I want you to know that. But we have had some time to think about this whole thing. We are legally obligated to report your parents. What they have done with kicking you out, is child abandonment, it’s a crime. You are a minor which means that you rely on your parents to take care of you. What they have done today, is abandon you and we will have to report this to the police and Child Protective Services.”

He looked over at Roier who was sitting next to him, looking down at his empty plate and nodding slightly. He had started fidgeting with his fingers in his lap.

“A report to the police would lead to an investigation and if they are found guilty of child abandonment then they could lose their parental rights not only for you but also your sister. We just wanted to let you know what the next legal steps are before we do anything.”

Roier nodded again before looking up at Cellbit’s dad. “I don’t want to do this my parents. I don’t want them to go to jail. They are not criminals.”

His mom sighed. “Roier, what they have done is illegal and cruel on top of that. They can’t do that.”

Cellbit could see that Roier was close to crying again. “But I-I love them. And they aren’t like this normally, I swear! I- I had a good childhood and- and they loved me, and they never hit me!”, his voice broke, and he took a shaky breath. He started rubbing Roier’s back in an attempt to calm him down. He felt Roier lean into his touch as he let out a small sob.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought, that’s why I wanted to tell you before we do anything. Listen Roier, legally we are obliged to report this or else we could get in trouble and maybe loose our own parental rights. In the end it’s not you who is reporting this, it’s us. There is no other way I believe, unless they take you back, but I don’t think that’s a good idea either, I’m sorry.”, his dad calmly said.

There was a longer silence as they waited for Roier to collect himself. A tear ran down Roier’s face, but he nodded a little after some hesitation. “Okay, yeah, I- I get it. Go ahead then.”, he sniffed quietly. “What will happen once you report this?”

“Well, someone is probably going to take your statement and our statements. Maybe some people who witnessed the situation in the changing room. And then they will talk to your parents, look at your house, talk to neighbors and family members. And then at some point they will do an assessment of the situation and decide from then on if you need to be removed from your parents’ home and if your parents keep their parental rights. In theory, this should be a pretty clear case because of what your parents said. However, we don’t know if they maybe change their minds or their side of the story.”

Roier took a shaky breath and nodded again. “What about Leo?”

“Well, that’s more complicated. Because if there is no child abuse or neglect going on in your house, then your parents might be able to keep her. But if CPS thinks there is a risk of your parents abandoning Leo at some point as well, then maybe they could get her too. We don’t know where she would go then though. Normally CPS tries to keep siblings together, but we don’t have the space or the time to take care of a 5-year-old. At least not now. They might put her in a family members care.”

Roier ran his hand through his hair and let out a sigh before rubbing his temples.

“I know this is going to be very stressful for you, but we are always here for you if you need someone to talk to. There is also the open question about what you will do about Quackity.”

Cellbit felt himself tense up at the name, but he swallowed down his frustration. He rubbed his hands on his thighs and looked over to Roier to focus back on him and to see his answer.

“I might go to the principal on Monday and report him for bullying or something like that. Depends on what will happen on Monday.”

They all seemed to agree with Roier’s last statement and dropped the topic for now. They agreed to get some of Roier’s stuff the next day before they went to bed.

••••••••••••

His parents decided to report Roier’s parents the next day to Child Protective Services. Since Roier wasn’t in immediate harm and was already out of his home, they were told that a social worker would come around and talk to them on Monday after school.

Cellbit was quite worried about Roier, but he didn’t know if and how he could help his boyfriend. The whole weekend, Roier basically spend in their room apart from when they went to get his stuff, for meals and to use the bathroom. He didn’t really want to talk much to anyone else, but Cellbit knew that he was trying to talk to him as much as he could. From what he gathered, Roier was still in disbelief that his parents would do something like this. He loved them, a lot, even after what they did to him. He was scared about what was going to happen now. And he really missed his sister.

He tried his best to give Roier as much comfort and security as possible, but he didn’t know how much he was actually helping. On Sunday, his parents suggested maybe looking for a therapist for Roier. He didn’t seem to be against the idea.

When Monday rolled around, all three of them went to school normally but for the first time him and Roier were able to hold hands on the bus and on their way to school. It felt freeing in a way, being able to just proudly show off his boyfriend. Roier also kept on wearing his ring in public, which made his heart pound quicker every time he caught a glimpse of it.

Roier was doing a bit better, but he was super nervous and tense when they walked to school, still holding hands. He had offered him multiple times to not do it if he didn’t want to get more attention than he was going to get anyways but Roier really wanted to just get it over with. Cellbit had a feeling that holding his hand also gave Roier a bit of support and he obviously wanted to give his boyfriend any kind of security and support that he could.

As they walked onto school grounds, Roier in the middle of him and Bagi, the three of them got a bunch of stares. People started pointing at them and whispering to each other but none of them really paid attention to it. Once they got inside the school building, the stares and whispers didn’t stop but they were met by Mariana who greeted them happily. Him and Roier had a quick chat in Spanish about how he was doing. Bagi waved them goodbye, eager to get to her girlfriend. The three of them made their way over to their first class of the day. Mariana told them a bit about what happened after they left on Friday.

“It was a bit crazy. Everyone kind of went off on Quackity, I actually was about to beat him up but Foolish held me back. At least he looked like he regretted it. I think he just left at some point, I don’t know. Malena felt really guilty, but she couldn’t have known. Also, I think a bunch of parents and students reported what they saw, to the principal. They were talking about involving the police so you might get called in today, Ro.”

“Thanks Mariana. Also please don’t beat up Quackity. You know that you will be gone immediately.”, Mariana quickly nodded and promised Roier to not touch Quackity.

“Yeah, I don’t think I will be able to concentrate much today anyways. Especially not with Quackity in the same room.”, he said as they entered the classroom and walked by the table said boy was sitting at.

The moment the three of them sat down, Quackity jumped up and walked over to them. He felt himself immediately tense up and sit up, so did Mariana. Quackity was playing with his hands and looked really small, Cellbit almost felt sorry for him with how pathetic he looked. But only almost. Before he could even get a word out, Cellbit interrupted him.

“Save your breath and our time and fuck off. We don’t want to hear it.”

For a second, he looked like he was going to argue with him but one look at Roier’s stone cold expression and silence was seemingly enough and he turned around immediately.

Cellbit put a hand on Roier’s thigh, trying to comfort him. Roier smiled at him softly and put his hand on top of his. He was glad that he was now actually able to give his boyfriend some comfort and didn’t just have to watch him suffer from afar.

Some time during their lesson, one of the secretaries opened the classroom door and asked for Quackity to come into the principal’s office. Everyone watched him as he left the room in a hurry, most of them already knowing what this was about.

“I hope he gets suspended.”, Mariana whispered to the two of them. Cellbit quietly agreed.

“I’m hoping for expulsion, so I don’t have to see his face anymore.”, Roier whispered back, his tone colder than Cellbit had ever heard from him, staring straight ahead.

It took about twenty minutes for Quackity to come back into the classroom. When he entered, he mumbled,

“Mariana, you’re supposed to go next.”

Said boy looked at him and Roier with a shrug and stood up to leave the classroom. Cellbit and Quackity locked eyes over the classroom but he immediately looked away and rolled his eyes and Quackity’s pathetic visage. His face was all red and swollen as if he had been crying. He couldn’t stand the thought of him crying his eyes out on the principal’s office for his own cruel actions, trying to get empathy.

Mariana came back a lot quicker, he looked quite satisfied with himself as he asked Molly to go to the principal’s office next. At this point, all the students who were not involved in the situation and clearly were not caught up with the newest gossip were starting to get confused and asked what was going on. Before any of them could say anything, their teacher interrupted the chatter.

“There is a situation going on which requires multiple statements by the students who witnessed it. I’m sure you will find out sooner or later what happened. Now please get back to your worksheets.”

And that was the end of the topic for now until Molly came back, right before the bell announced the end of class.

Sadly, this was where him and Roier had to separate for now until they had English class together later. For now, Roier and Mariana were going to their biology class in Spanish while Cellbit had his Portuguese Math class now.

He had to go to his locker first though to get his math book. Roier and Mariana had to go in the same direction, so Cellbit got to spend a few more seconds with his boyfriends before kissing him goodbye at the lockers. He turned to his open locker as the other two walked away and jumped at the sound of a voice next to him, behind his locker door.

“So, it is true. You are dating Roier.”, Cellbit closed the door of his locker to reveal Badboyhalo’s dark figure.

“Holy fuck, Bad. You scared the shit out of me. Why do you always sneak up on people like that?”, Bad gave him an unimpressed look and completely ignored what he just said.

“I must say, I’m pretty impressed. Some people have been trying to date him for years. And you did it in a few months.”

“Well, maybe if people stopped treating him like a trophy or an achievement, then he would’ve agreed to a date or two. But too late now I guess.”, he grinned in satisfaction.

“That’s true I suppose. Well, congrats, Cellbit. And good luck. Byebye.”, and with that he was gone again. Cellbit shook his head in disbelief. This meant that anyone who didn’t already know about him and Roier, would find out pretty soon.

When he was about to enter the classroom, he was met with Malena, who told him that she’d been called up to the principal’s office as well. Seems like the whole basketball team was getting called up one by one. She also apologized to him quickly for what happened on Friday, but he reassured her that it didn’t matter, even if she hadn’t explained the tradition, it would’ve ended like this. He then went inside to sit next to Pac and Mike who greeted him cheerfully.

Felps was sleeping in the row behind them with Guaxinim sitting next to him, also waving at him. Cellbit was thankful when Pac, Mike and Guaxinim just congratulated him for his relationship but then immediately moved on. It was good to know that nothing changed between them. Bagi was the last one to enter the classroom, looking a lot more relaxed than before the first class.

A few classes went by until him and Roier were supposed to have English together but when he entered the classroom Roier wasn’t sitting at his seat, waiting for him like he usually would. Cellbit sat down, confused and worried, taking out his phone to text Roier where he was, when Etoiles sat next to him.

“Roier is in the principal’s office. Foolish was the one who sent him there like 5 minutes ago.”, he whispered to him.

Cellbit nodded with relief and thanked him quickly. Etoiles waved him off.

“Can I sit next to you until he’s back? To be honest, I don’t think he will be back until the end.”, Cellbit agreed and for the rest of the class, he sat next to Etoiles. They hadn’t talked as much before with just the two of them, but Etoiles did a great job at distracting him a little from his worries about Roier.

After English class, it was time for their lunch break, but Roier still hadn’t come back from the principal’s office. He decided to go and sit on the chairs in front of said office and wait for his boyfriend, sending Bagi a quick text about his whereabouts so that she didn’t have to worry.

“Can I help you?”, the secretary had opened the door to her little office which was in front of the principal’s office.

“Oh no I’m just waiting for someone.”, he politely answered her.

“Ah I see, you’re the boyfriend, right?”, Cellbit nodded, wondering just how quickly gossip got around at this school of even the secretary already knew about their relationship. “I think they are almost done.”

“Thanks.”, he offered her a polite smile before she closed the door again and he turned back to his phone.

Indeed, it took only a few more minutes until Roier left the principals room. The look on his face was hard to read. He didn’t look as happy and satisfied as Marina, and he had clearly been crying like Quackity, but it seemed like he was less tense than when they had entered the school this morning. His face light up a little when he spotted him, and he immediately walked over to him. Cellbit had stood up properly to greet him with a short kiss on the lips.

“Let’s go?”, Cellbit asked him and was met with an eager nod as an answer.

Before they were able to turn around and leave, the principal exited his office.

“Cellbit?”, he looked up to look at the principal. “Can you and your sister come to my office after lunch break?”

Cellbit titled his head in confusion as he didn’t know why they would be asked about the whole Quackity situation since they didn’t witness it but then just nodded.

“Yes, sir. We will be there.”, he said before the two of them then left the office to go to the cafeteria.

“How was it?”, he interlocked his and Roier’s hands as they walked down the halls. It still felt surreal to be able to do this.

“Okay, I think. Let’s talk about it once we are home, okay?”, Roier squeezed his hand, and he hummed in agreement.

When they entered the cafeteria, Tina immediately spotted them from across the room and came almost sprinting over to them. Apparently, her and Roier hadn’t seen each other all day. Cellbit went ahead to sit with the other Brazilians to give them a bit of space as they hugged each other tightly. He watched them from his seat with a smile of adoration, they both seemed very relieved to see that the other was okay.

He focused back on Pac and Guaxinim who were sitting in front of him and listened to their conversation.

“Has Fit asked you to be his spring ball date yet?”, Guaxinim asked Pac.

“No not yet. But he called me his boyfriend in front of Bad yesterday.”

“Wait what is spring ball?”, Cellbit interrupted their conversation.

“Oh has no one told you about this?”, both of them turned to him.

“No, I don’t think so?”

“Okay so every year there is a party for the seniors. It’s a huge event with all that glamorous shit and it’s the opportunity to ask out your crush on a date. You don’t have to go as a pair, but most people do. Lots of people also just go as friends but there are lots of couples there.”, Pac explained.

“I asked Rodezel and you know what he said? Of course I will go with you, you’re my best friend. Like what do I even say to that? It’s just so embarrassing at this point.”, Guaxinim groaned in frustration.

“That sounds rough. But when is it?”

“Normally it’s around Valentine’s Day, which is why some people call it the Valentine’s Ball but officially it’s just the Spring ball and it's not supposed to be all about romance. But in reality, it kind of is all about romance.”, Guaxinim continued.

“Sounds cool, I’ll ask Roier if he wants to go.”

“Oh, you two will look so handsome in suits and all. I can’t wait!”, Pac said in a dreamy tone while smiling brightly. Cellbit couldn’t help but laugh at that. He was very glad that his friends were so casual about his relationship. He still had to talk to them properly about it at some point but not with everything else going on at the moment and definitely not at school.

“I bet you and Fit will look great together as well.”

“Really? You think so?”, Pac started blushing and trying to fight the excited smile on his face but failed miserably at doing so.

“No, I know it.”

••••••••••••

His and Bagi’s visit in the principal’s office was mostly just for them to describe what happened immediately after Roier had ran out the changing room since they were the ones who saw him. They gave their point of views of what happened and confirmed that Roier was indeed safe at their parents’ house before were then able to leave again.

Later that day, when Roier, Bagi and him returned home, there was already a car parked in front of their house which none of them recognized. They pretty quickly guessed that it had to be the social worker from CPS. Upon entering the house, their suspicions were confirmed as his mother immediately came to them and told them that the social worker was here and wanted to talk to Roier alone as soon as possible. Roier nodded and followed their mother to the living room while both him and Bagi went to their respective rooms.

It took about an hour until Roier joined him in his room, but only to tell him that it was now his turn to go downstairs to talk with the social worker. He looked really exhausted and promptly threw himself onto their bed. Cellbit sighed and kissed him on the forehead before making his way down the stairs.

The social worker was a small red-haired lady, dressed in a formal grey suit with a tablet resting on her lap, probably to take notes. She was sitting on one of their sofas and looked really out of place in between the colorful blankets and pillows. She gestured for him to sit down across from her and introduced herself. Cellbit didn’t really catch her name and just nodded and introduced himself as well, even though she probably already knew his name.

“So, you are Roier’s boyfriend?”, she began with her questions.

“Yes ma’am, I am.”

“For how long have you known him?”

“Since the beginning of the school year, so like 3 or 4 months.”

“And you’ve been dating for?”

“Almost two months.”

“Okay”, she paused for a moment to type something on her tablet. “and have you ever met his parents?”

“I have seen his father once or twice when he came to pick him up, but we never talked. I have never seen or met his mother.”

“I see. But you were aware of his parents’ opinion on homosexuality?”, she asked as she pushed up her glasses.

He cringed a bit at the way she said it as if it was a medical condition but nodded. “Yes, Roier told me when we started dating. That’s why we kept it a secret in school.”

She nodded and typed away on her little tablet before looking up at him. “Were you ever concerned about your boyfriend’s well-being while he was living with his parents?”

Cellbit shook his head. “No, he never gave me reason to. He never talked badly about his parents. Apart from their homophobia, they seemed like good parents.”

“And what have you heard about or witnessed regarding that homophobia?”

“Well not much. As I said, I never met them, but Roier and his best friend have told us that his parents don’t like our queer friends. And they said that a few years ago there was already some suspicion about him being gay and they tried conversion therapy, I believe.”

“Okay... well I believe that’s already everything I need. Thank you Cellbit, you can ask your sister to come down here as well.”

He bid his goodbyes before going upstairs and knocking at Bagi’s door and sending her downstairs before going back into his room. Roier was sitting on his bed, typing on his phone before looking up at Cellbit and smiling at him softly. His smile still didn’t really reach his eye, but he seemed better than the previous days.

“And? How was talking to her? And the principal earlier?”, he asked while sitting down next to Roier.

“Well, the principal told me that what Quackity did was quite serious and that they are considering suspending him for a few days. They probably can’t do more than that because outing someone technically isn’t against the schools rules. But he said that since Quackity is knowingly and intentionally putting me at risk of being bullied, they can at least suspend him for a few days.”

Cellbit rolled his eyes and sighed. In his opinion that definitely wasn’t enough, but he could understand the principal in some way. And he also knew that the only way for him to be satisfied with a punishment would be for Quackity to permanently be gone from the school.

“And for the social worker, well. She basically told me what your parents already said. She will talk to my parents and some other family members and neighbors in the next few days. There is a possibility that my parents change their mind when being confronted by CPS and might want me back, but I told her that I don’t want to go back there because I’m scared that they will hurt me. And we also discussed if it would be better to go and live with another family member, but I told her that everyone apart from Vegetta, is also homophobic.”

“I’m not letting you go back, no way. And I’m also not letting you move away to Vegetta. We could never see each other. No, you’re staying here.”

Chapter Text

“I should’ve never let him near our daughter.”, was not the sentence Tina had expected to be the first thing to hear from her parents when they picked her up after Roier’s basketball game. At first, she thought it was just her parents still being salty about Roier breaking up with her but when she saw the look on her mother’s face, she knew something was up. It was this look of disgust that she always had when talking badly behind someone’s back.

“What happened?”, Tina asked as she approached her parents. She was still in her cheerleader uniform, holding the bouquet she just got from Bagi.

“Oh my goodness, I’m glad you’re here. Darling did you know that Roier was”, she paused for a second and looked around as if to see if someone was listening in, ”you know?”

Tina raised an eyebrow in confusion. Honestly knowing her mother, this sentence could to in so many possible directions, but it was definitely something negative.

“What?”, she crossed her arms, ready to hear another ridiculous claim about her best friend out of her mother’s mouth.

“Well that he was a-?”, her mother made a few more confusing hand gestures, but Tina still couldn’t decipher what she was trying to say. “That he’s gay”, her mother whispered the last part.

Her eyes widened and she stared at her mother for a few seconds. She looked at her dad who nodded in agreement with her mother, apparently just as curious.

“Wow, what do you mean? Roier is straight, mom. Just because her broke up with me doesn’t mean he suddenly likes men?”

“Well apparently it does. He said it himself.”

Tina was about to argue back to her parents. She couldn’t believe what her mother had just said. But then she spotted Foolish from across the parking lot. The expression on his face was one she had never seen on him before. He looked angry, really angry but also scared and worried at the same time. Something must have happened, and Tina had a feeling that his facial expression and what her parents were talking about were somehow connected.

“Give me a second.”, she said before quickly walking over to her friend. Foolish spotted her as well and came jogging towards her as best as he could with his injured foot.

“Tina! Have you seen Roier?”

“Not since the game ended. What happened?”

“Quackity just outed him in front of the team and his parents. And they kicked him out on the spot. He ran away crying, no one knows where he went.”, Foolish quickly caught her up to what had happened.

For a few seconds, it felt like time slowed down. Tina could feel her heartbeat picking up the pace in her chest as the adrenaline ran through her veins. Suddenly it felt like everything around her was packed in cotton, all sounds muffled as she continued to stare at Foolish in shock. The flower bouquet from Bagi which she was still holding in her hands, slipped out of her hands to the ground. Realistically she should’ve known that this day would come sooner or later. She should’ve been prepared for this moment. But at this moment she couldn’t think about anything else.

Tina knew that Roier’s parents would be there today. His mother had messaged her a few days prior, to ask her when the game would probably be over because they wanted to surprise their son. They really couldn’t make it for the game since they were still working but they wanted to celebrate with him after the game. They didn’t even think about what to do if Roier’s team lost because they were so confident and proud of their son.

Normally Tina and Roier told each other everything but she thought, just this once she could keep a secret. She knew how happy it would make her best friend to even just have his parents there for a few minutes.

Her brain was going at a hundred miles an hour, imagining every single terrible scenario of what could’ve happened to her best friend and where he could be right now. She was only ripped out of her trance when Foolish put a hand on Tina’s shoulder. He had picked up the flowers and pushed them back into Tina’s hands.

“Hey, I know this is bad but weren’t him and Cellbit talking about Roier sleeping over at his house? He probably went with them.”

And she really tried to believe that Foolish was right about this. Roier and Cellbit had indeed been talking about this for the past few days. Their whole friend group knew that this was their plan for today. But she still couldn’t help but feel dizzy at the thought of all the different outcomes to this situation. Before she could answer, she heard her mother call for her. She took one more look at Foolish, who pulled her into a quick hug before she turned around to quickly walk back to her parents.

She climbed into the back seat without another word, ignoring her mother’s comments about Foolish. She turned on her phone and started messaging Roier frantically but quickly realized that his phone must be turned off, so she gave up on that pretty quickly. While she was distracted by that for a few seconds, her mother had come back to the topic of her best friend and just went on and on, saying terrible things about him, Foolish and Cellbit. She really tried to ignore her comments, but she couldn’t help but feel a little stab in her heart with every single slur and insult her mother spat out. There went any hope of a good ending with her own coming out.

Luckily their car ride wasn’t that long, and Tina could soon lock herself in her room. She immediately pulled out her phone and tried to call Roier. No one answered. She then tried to call Cellbit. Same thing. She felt tears of frustration and anxiety build up in her eyes when she tried to call Bagi. After three rings, her girlfriend picked up the phone. A wave of relief washed over her.

The call was a whole emotional rollercoaster as she went from being relieved that her best friend was still alive and breathing and not physically hurt, to feeling angry after hearing her best friend re-tell the details to the quick summary Foolish had given her. Overall, she was a lot less scared than before she call but she still couldn’t help but worry a lot about her best friend.

Towards the end of the call, right when she was about to hang up, she heard a knock on her door.

“Tina?! You better not be talking to Roier.”, she could hear her mother screeching from the other side of the door. “Open this door right now!”

She quickly ended the call, not wanting her girlfriend or her friends worry about her. They had enough trouble going on at the moment.

As her mother started knocking harder at the door, Tina opened said door. Her mother looked at her furiously and held out her hand.

“Phone. Now”

Honestly, maybe Tina should’ve fought her mother about this. Maybe she should’ve at least handled out a few more minutes so she could tell her friends that her phone was being taken away. But she didn’t even have the energy to protest and just put her phone in her mother’s palm. She had turned it off so her mother at least couldn’t snoop through it.

===============

The rest of her weekend, Tina spent being bored out of her mind and worried about her friends. She wasn’t allowed to leave the house either as her mother knew she would immediately go to see Roier.

Through all of this, as per usual, her father was the quiet watcher. Her father would never punish her like this. The most he had done through all of her life was a time out when she was still a child and had thrown a tantrum and broke a glass. And that was mostly so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. He had never taken away her phone or tried to read her messages like her mother had done before. He had rarely ever yelled at her and even when he did, she knew it was kind of justified by the way she had been acting in those situations.

When her mother wasn’t around, the whole atmosphere between her and her dad changed. He was always curious about her life but not in an invasive way. He never punished her for the things both of them knew her mother would punish her for. He was actually really affectionate but always respected her boundaries.

Sadly, this rarely happened as her mother worked less than her dad. So, most of the time, her mother was alone with her or both of them were there. Her father worked a lot and almost never had time for just the two of them.

This used to be different. When Tina was younger, her mother was the one who worked more than her father. For the first few years of her life, up until she was about eight years old, her dad was mostly a stay-at-home father who started working more as she got older. In that time, the two of them had formed a strong father daughter bond. These were the best years of her childhood.

And then when she was about eight or nine, her father got offered a better paying position in the next city. Around the same time, her mother was able to work less to take care of her. It’s been like this ever since.

When her mother was home, her father turned into a quiet observer who never argued with his wife. He never spoke up against his wife and was overall a whole different person when her mother was present. He became cold and distant.

It was part of the reason why Tina sometimes resented her dad. She couldn’t understand why her father never disagreed with his wife and never tried to stop her ways of parenting towards her but also never carry out the same ways of parenting himself.

===============

Throughout the whole weekend, Tina thought a lot about Bagi, Roier and Cellbit. Not only because of what happened but also because she hoped that they wouldn’t worry too much about her since she wasn’t answering their messages. She trusted in Roier to inform Bagi about her situation and hopefully calm her down a bit. But in the end, she couldn’t do anything but hope that they wouldn’t worry too much and maybe even decide to do something as reckless as come to her parents apartment to check on her.

Seeing Bagi on Monday confirmed her assumptions that her girlfriend would be quite worried. This was the first time her mother had taken her phone since they got to know each other. The moment Bagi came through the door, she could see her tense shoulders relax significantly and the expression on her face soften. She could also feel herself reacting similarly to seeing her girlfriend.

Their talk after class calmed her thoughts about her girlfriend’s well-being a lot but realizing that they would probably not be able to see each other a lot anymore, made her worry again. It was all very chaotic and messed up. Her parents would definitely not allow her to go to Cellbit and Bagi’s house and she wasn’t really allowed to bring people over to their apartment which meant they were kind of screwed.

By accident, she had somehow managed to not see Roier all day until lunch break. She did however hear people talking about him. It seemed as if the whole school already heard about what had happened the Friday prior. While she obviously got annoyed by people talking about her best friend behind his back, it seemed as if the general opinion was mostly positive towards Roier. People were surprised and some still didn’t believe it, but the hateful comments went mostly against Quackity. While she did hear a few weird conversations about Roier being gay, with homophobic undertones, even those people seemed to agree that Quackity was an asshole for what he did, which made her feel a bit more relieved.

As she saw Roier for the first time since Friday, she ran over the cafeteria to hug him tightly. She let out a breath she didn’t know she had been holding. It was like she could properly breathe again since Friday. Now she could finally completely relax. Even after he had told her that he was mostly fine, there still was something in the back of her head that wouldn’t let her rest until she could see him in real life and see for herself that he was indeed okay.

“God, are you okay??”, she exclaimed after their hug, patting his arms and shoulders, looking for any other physical visible injury.

“Yes Tina. I already told you, I’m okay.”, Roier rolled his eyes but the small smile on his face revealed that he wasn’t serious.

“I know, but you could’ve been lying. Wouldn’t be the first time.”, she replied. After scanning Roier from head to toe she deemed him to be okay enough. She nodded to herself, satisfied with Roier’s condition. “But I guess you didn’t this time.”

“Oh my god, are you ever going to let that go? It was just a small scrap.”

“No, you know I’m very resentful.”

Roier laughed a little before looking at her.
“How are things at home? You got your phone taken away again.”

“Yeah, mom heard me talk to you on Friday. She’s been just saying awful stuff over and over every day. It’s honestly getting quite boring at this point.”, she laughed sadly towards the end. It wasn’t funny at all what her mother was saying but the way she kept on repeating how much she hated Roier and all things like that, just made her sound ridiculous at some point. As if she was trying to convince herself that she was actually homophobic.

Roier sighed, grabbing her hand and squeezing it. She could see the look of pity in his eyes, so she squeezed his hand back before scrunching her nose.

“Don’t look at me like that, I’m fine. She said I will get my phone back today. You’re the one I should be worried about. You got kicked out of your home while I just got my phone taken away.”

“Well but I can still worry about you, can’t I?”

Tina rolled her eyes again but smiled at him. “Yeah whatever. I suppose you’re right.”

“Of course, I am. Now let’s go and sit down.”

Roier took her with him to Cellbit and his Brazilian friends to sit down at their table. Tina hadn’t really met the other boys yet, but she was greeted warmly and told to sit down next to Bagi. She shot her girlfriend a questioning glance, unsure if the boys knew about their relationship with the way they were reacting. Bagi just shook her head quickly. Apparently, they were just really sweet people.

===============
To be honest, Tina didn’t know why the possibility that she could maybe get a ring from Bagi, like the one Roier had gotten from Cellbit, never crossed her mind. It wasn’t that she forgot that her girlfriend was Brazilian. Or that the tradition could also apply to other couples other than her best friend and his boyfriend. She just truly never thought about it.

Which in the end made the whole moment of opening the little box even better in her opinion. The fact that she hadn’t anticipated this gift but already knew what it meant just made her heart race. The ring was super beautiful, just like Bagi’s smile as she watched her put the ring on.

Funnily enough, Bagi wasn’t the only one who had a surprise prepared for the last day before Christmas holiday. She still had a normal present for her girlfriend but there was something she wanted to ask her today.

“So, I don’t know if someone has told you about the Spring Ball yet.”, she started.

Bagi shook her head and titled it to the side, looking at her confused.

“Well, there is a ball at the beginning of February, a few days before Valentine’s Day probably. And it’s tradition for the seniors to ask someone to go there with them. You don’t have to go there as a couple, you can also go by yourself or as friends. And I feel like it would be a great opportunity for us to go without immediately getting outed.”, she was still holding Bagi’s hand in hers, swinging them in-between their bodies a little while looking up at her.

“So, you are asking me to be your date for a ball?”

“If you want to, then yes angel. I would like for you to be my date for the Spring Ball.”, she smiled at her softly.

“I would love to”, Bagi pressed a small kiss on her lips. Tina pressed one on her cheek with a warm smile.

They shared a long look between them in complete silence. Just staring into each other’s eyes. She made sure to memorize every single freckle from her girlfriends face. They weren’t going to see each other for a while so she couldn’t forget her beauty. She let go of one of Bagi’s hands to softly caress her cheek and remove an eyelash from under her eye.

“Make a wish”, she whispered while holding the eyelash in front of Bagi’s mouth. She looked at her again before grinning and then blowing it away.

===============

Christmas was pretty uneventful and so was New Year’s. She had to spend both holidays with her family and some of her extended family that didn’t live in Korea. It was mostly just boring and annoying as her extended family was just as conservative as her parents. She was also not allowed to meet her friends at all since her mother still hadn’t lifted her house arrest.

She did call Roier on both Christmas and New Years Eve. He seemed to be doing pretty well, even though it felt bittersweet. From what she could gather, he was happy with his boyfriend and his parents and Bagi, but he also wanted to spend these days with his actual family, but he couldn’t.

She was relieved that Cellbit’s and Bagi’s family made him feel welcomed and that despite everything, he still was still able to spend holidays with people that he loved.

Her and Bagi talked almost every night about anything that came to mind. Bagi reassured her that Roier wasn’t lying about his well-being and also updated her on the child abandonment case they reported to child protective services. They were still reviewing the case and discussing the legal side of things.

Bagi told her every day about how much she missed her, and Tina couldn’t help but feel the same. Even though they couldn’t spend much time together in school as well, they saw each other at least once or twice a day, if not more often. Now she could only appreciate her girlfriend’s face through her phone screen. It just wasn’t the same and Tina dearly missed Bagi’s soft touches on her skin, whether it was “accidentally” in class or on purpose when they were hiding somewhere. She missed feeling her warmth against her body whenever they would hug or cuddle.

Maybe it was this feeling of missing her girlfriend, which made her do what she did on the last day of winter holidays.

It’s been a pretty normal day, nothing unusual. She had spent most of her day in her room, preparing to go back to school and studying for upcoming tests. She only really left her room to go and eat in the kitchen with her parents. Breakfast and Lunch were as quiet as usual, but dinner was very different.

It started with Tina walking into the kitchen and finding a letter on top of the plate where her seat was. She immediately knew what this was. As the Spring Ball was super important to the school and also for most students, they sent out these fancy invitations cards to everyone. Truth be told, Tina had been anticipating this letter for a while now. She was really excited.

Her mother seemed to be just as excited as she was and gestured her to sit down quickly.

“Come on, open it”, she was smiling like she hadn’t been in a while.

Tina quickly sat down and opened the letter with excitement. Inside was a lavender colored card with her name engraved in golden writing.

“You are hereby invited to this year’s spring ball on the 12th of February.”, she read out loud. Below that was written the location and the date of the first dance course.

Her mother squealed in excitement. “Oh, I am so happy for you. Who will you go with?”

Tina froze in her tracks and looked at her mother. Her mother’s happy expression immediately twisted into disgusted grimace.

“You better not go with Roier. That dirty fa-“

“Mom! Stop it. No, I’m not going with Roier.”, she interrupted her mother and hoped that this was the end of the argument but obviously her mother couldn’t leave it there.

“They should make it a rule that only boys and girls can go together. I bet he will try to go with his boyfriend.”

She kept her silence and just stared down at her plate. Her own excitement had vanished quite quickly. As always, her mother couldn’t help herself from ruining things for her. If she was going to behave like this for the next month, Tina didn’t know if she could it.

“Well anyways, who are you going to go with then? Do you have someone in mind? Or have you asked someone already?”, her mother continued prodding her.

Tina nodded quietly at the last question, still looking down at their plate, refusing to look her mother into her eyes. Her mother shoved her playfully and smiled.

“Well tell me, who is it? Do we know him? Is he handsome?”, her mother kept asking.

Tina didn’t answer. Sure, she could lie and tell her mother about how she was going to go with some of her male friends that she didn’t know already. She could’ve easily just said that she was going with Etoiles, who she was pretty sure, wasn’t going to go anyways. But in this moment Tina decided that it was time for her as well. Sooner or later, her parents would find out anyways.

“Don’t tell me you’re going with another fa-“, her mother started getting louder again but Tina interrupted her before she could finish her sentence. She could not stand hearing her mother use that slur, especially since it was directed at her friends. She had enough.

“I’m not going with a boy, mom!”, she angrily hit the kitchen table. “I’m going with my girlfriend!”, Tina looked up from her plate and stared her mother right in the face, yelling the last sentence. She felt her ears ringing with anger and her sight going blurry as she had tears in her eyes. Then she realized what she had just said, and it felt like her heart dropped. Well, it was out now, no taking it back. Tina swallowed hard and dared to continue starting at her mother’s face.

There was a second of silence. No movement, no noise. It felt as if time was standing still. And then, he mother’s face twisted into an angry expression. Her face turned red in anger. The next moment Tina saw her mother raise her hand. Her mother never hit her before but if this was going to be the first time, then so be it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the impact of her hand hit her face. She was ready to feel the pain not only in her face but also in her heart. She was ready for the sound of a slap to not only break the silence but also her heart.

But it never came. She heard a loud gasp from her mother which made her open her eyes immediately. Her father was holding his wife’s wrist midair. Throughout the whole conversation, he’d been quietly standing in the kitchen, getting their food ready and probably listening in on their conversation. He had his back turned to them, so Tina didn’t know how he reacted to her outing. His facial expression was completely unreadable to her as her stared at her mother with a cold stare.

“What are you doing?”, her mother looked up at her husband in shock as he was still grabbing her wrist tightly. She tried to rip her arm out of his grip, but her dad wasn’t budging. Her mother’s eyes were wide in shock, and she began to tremble in fear. This was one of the rare moments where Tina had seen her mother actually afraid. Seeing both of her parents like this, completely contrary to what they were normally like. Tina felt like she was in some weird dream, this didn’t feel real.

“You do not hit my daughter.”, her father spoke in a tone of cold authority which Tina had never heard him use before, especially not directed at his wife. His voice was calm and quiet and yet scarily assertive.

“But she’s-. She can’t-. She’s a sinner! She’s disgusting!! She needs to be punished!”, her mother stammered out hysterically, pointing at her as if she was the devil. She felt something in her break at those words. But she couldn’t even spent a lot of time to think about how terribly hurt she was because of how bizarre the sight in front of her was.

“Enough! I have endured you for long enough. I should’ve divorced you ages ago.”, he whispered the last part under his breath but still loud enough for both of them to hear it.

Her mother looked between the two of them, at a loss for words. Tina honestly felt the same way and didn’t know what to say as she stared at her father with surprise. He had never done anything like this before. This was completely out of character for him.

“Stay right here. Don’t you move.”, her father let go of her mother’s wrist before coming over to Tina. “Follow me.”

She did what her father asked her to and followed him outside the kitchen into her room. She felt a bit scared to be honest. Even though he seemed to be on her side as he just defended her, his actions were so out of character that Tina had no idea what was going on inside this head or what he was going to do now. He closed the door behind them.

“Okay, to start I just want to say that this is not me throwing you out. I need you to know that I would never do anything like Roier’s parents did. I love you no matter what.”, he paused for a second. “But I need you to go. Maybe to where Roier is staying. Just for tonight.”

“Why?” If her father wasn’t throwing her out because she liked girls, then why did she have to leave?

“I’m divorcing your mother and getting her out of this house. Don’t worry, I would never step as low as she did and even lay a finger on her. It just going to get super messy and loud, and I don’t think you’d want to be there for this. Especially since I can’t guarantee your safety if you’re here. We got lucky that I caught her hand in time, but I don’t know if I can hold her back for the rest of the night.”

Tina nodded in agreement before pausing for a second and biting her lip with worry. She hesitated a little before asking, “But you are okay with me liking girls?”

“Do you not like boys at all?”, her dad asked her curiously, tilting his head to the side a bit.

Tina shook her head. “No, only girls, dad.”

“Well, I can’t blame you, boys are quite stupid.”, he laughed a little before pulling her into a hug. “Of course I don’t mind. You will always be my princess, no matter what.”

“Really?”

“Tina listen, even if my beliefs and everyone around me tell me I shouldn’t accept this, I can’t understand how I am supposed to not accept and love a human for being who they are and loving who they want to.”, he paused for a second and pulled out of their hug to look at her properly. “Does your girlfriend make you happy?”

Tina nodded quickly. She couldn’t even begin to describe how happy Bagi made her. She had caught herself smiling at her phone dumbly when texting her or grinning happily after their little meetups in the empty classrooms. Or just smiling at the thought of her. She noticed how much she had been smiling in general over the course of the past few weeks. She knew if herself from a few months ago knew about this, she’d find it super embarrassing how she was currently acting. She was acting like in one of those cliché cringy high school movies. But she couldn’t even care that much about it because she was just so happy.

“And that’s all I ask for. Nothing else. As long as you are happy, I could care less about who you might love. Unless she’s a serial killer or something like that, then maybe not.”

The amount of relief rushing through her body instantly made her tear up and she held onto her father like he was her lifeline while tears ran down her face, laughing wetly. “Thank you so much dad.”

===============
Tina ended up calling Bagi’s mother, who picked up immediately. She explained what was going on and asked if she could stay for the night. Her father spoke with Bagi’s parents as well for a quick moment, explaining again that he was not throwing out his daughter and that this was just temporary for her safety. As she expected, Bagi’s parents didn’t even hesitate for a second and immediately said that they were on their way to get her.

In the meantime, she got all of her stuff for the night and the next morning ready. Her school bag was already packed so she only needed her pajamas and her clothes for the following day. While she was doing that, her father had gone back to her mother, checking if she was still in the kitchen, which she was.

It only took Bagi’s parents about 20 minutes to get to their apartment. When they arrived, she was packed and ready to go while her father had gotten some paperwork from her parents’ bedroom.

“I’ve been preparing divorce papers and about everything on the legal side of a divorce for weeks now. I’ve been waiting for this moment.”, he explained to her.

“You’ve been preparing for a divorce for this long?”

“Oh I’ve been waiting to divorce your mother for much longer than that. But I will explain everything to you tomorrow, okay?”

She nodded in silent agreement. She couldn’t stop herself from wondering just how long her dad had been wanting a divorce. And why he didn’t do anything earlier. Why he’d just stayed in this marriage if he’d wanted a divorce for so long already. Maybe it was some adult stuff that she just couldn’t understand yet.

Bagi’s mother immediately hugged her after they opened the door, when she saw how red and swollen her eyes were and made sure that she was not injured. Bagi’s father was following his wife closely and rubbed her shoulder in comfort.

“I’m okay, don’t worry about me. Dad stopped her before she could hurt me.”, she explained to them when Bagi’s mother let go of her.

After another quick confirmation that everything was indeed fine between Tina and her dad, Bagi’s parents exchanged numbers with her father and then the three of them said their goodbyes and left.

Once she sat down in the car, Tina let out a big sigh that she’d been holding back for a while. She couldn’t describe how she was feeling right now, and she also didn’t know what she was supposed to feel in this moment. She was scared but still somehow relieved. She was very confused, that was for sure. But she also felt quite reassured and safe in a way, knowing that she was now with people who couldn’t hurt her. It was a very strange feeling.

In hindsight, maybe Tina should’ve told her girlfriend, her best friend and her best friend’s boyfriend that she was coming over to stay with them for the night. But she was so focused on getting out of the house safely that she kind of forgot. Bagi’s parents told her that they didn’t say anything because they knew that their children and Roier would want to come with them to get her or that they would get extremely worried and panicked even though she was fine. So, they just drove off quickly without even saying goodbye or where they were going, so that they wouldn’t get suspicious. Which Tina thought was fair. Bagi’s mother told her that they probably didn’t even notice that they were gone.

Surprisingly, they did notice that they were gone and all three of them were waiting in the doorway after Bagi’s parents pulled up at the driveway. When they saw Tina leaving the car, their faces dropped, and their eyes went wide. Both Roier and Bagi ran over to her, through the thin layer of snow with only socks on.

“Oh my god, are you okay? What are you doing here?”, both of them exclaimed multiple variations of this at the same time, Bagi holding her face and checking for injuries while Roier immediately took her bags out of her hand.

“I’m okay. Don’t worry.”, she reassured then before making her way towards the front door. Bagi’s and Cellbit’s parents were already inside while Cellbit was still standing in the doorway, observing what had just happened, looking just as concerned as Roier and Bagi. After Tina climbed up the small stairway to the door, he immediately held out his arms for a hug.

“You’re okay?”, he asked while Tina hugged him for a few seconds. She nodded and felt him let out a relieved sigh. Then all of them went inside and after hugging her best friend and her girlfriend as well, she confirmed that she was not injured and doing okay. They then sat down in the living room to warm up with some tea Bagi’s father made for them while she told them what had happened.

Chapter Text

The past few weeks had been interesting to say the least. There seemed to be an endless rollercoaster of emotions going on and Roier didn’t know how to get off. It was just constant ups and downs, sometimes ranging from day to day, sometimes there would be longer periods of him feeling one emotion and then sometimes in one day, everything would change again. It was quite stressful and to say that Roier was exhausted was an understatement.

The first week of staying at Cellbit’s and Bagi’s parents house was definitely the one with the most difficulties for him. First of all, obviously he wasn’t taking his parents kicking him out too well. There was a lot of mixed emotions inside of him. While he felt a lot of anger towards his parents and also Quackity, he also felt sad, incredibly sad. He even tried to contact his parents, begging them to take him back. Not because he didn’t like staying at his boyfriend’s house, no he loved it there. But he just wanted everything to go back to how it had been before. He wanted to be loved by his actual parents, not just Cellbit’s parents, as nice as that was. Their love could never replace the love that Roier was craving from his parents. Luckily, they seemed to know and understand that.

And to then make the decision to allow Cellbit’s and Bagi’s parents to inform the police about what had happened, broke his heart even more. He was craving their love so much and now he was actively letting police investigate them for child abandonment. He didn’t want his parents to end up in prison. And yet he knew that what they had done was wrong and that Cellbit’s and Bagi’s parents needed to act like this to also protect their own kids. That didn’t make it hurt any less.

He was also really missing his little sister. Leo was a true sunshine, and he’d always miss her when they didn’t see each other for a day. Despite their age difference, him and Leo were really close and spend as much time together as they could. Recently that had become less since Roier was not only busy with practice and studying but also because he now had a boyfriend. And yet he’d always made sure to spend some time with her every day. Right now, he was regretting not spending more time with her. Not seeing her for so long and also not knowing how she was doing, truly pained him.

And the whole going back to school wasn’t exactly all sunshine and rainbows as well. Not everyone was horrible. Some people like Pac and Felps, Bagi and Cellbit’s friends, didn’t even mention it and just welcomed him to their table at lunch. Sadly, they were the exception. Most other reactions were either people trying way too hard to not seem homophobic but end up saying homophobic or just weird stuff anyways like:

Are you sure though? You don’t seem gay

Hey, I think still you’re cool even though you’re gay

But you don’t have a crush on me, right?

And while that was exhausting and annoying and sometimes even quite insulting, obviously Roier preferred these comments over the negative ones. Those comments were not the majority but still there. Some of them were just outright stupid comments like:

Oh, so this is why you’re so bad at basketball

or

I bet Foolish and Mariana turned you gay

Or sometimes he’d just hear someone whisper the word gay when he was walking down the hallway. And truth be told, Roier could absolutely live with all of those comments. They were so ridiculous and dumb that he couldn’t even really take them seriously. But sadly, some people were more serious than that and actually hurt him.

Someone spat at him on Monday, his first day of being out as gay in public. He was just entering the toilet as he almost ran into someone. He didn’t even see their face to be able to tell who it was before he got shoved hard, a mumbled f slur followed. The next thing he knew was feeling something wet hit his face. He immediately felt like throwing up and sprinted towards the sink once the other guy had left him alone.

He didn’t tell anyone about it because he was too embarrassed to do so. And because he knew how Cellbit would react. As much as he appreciated his boyfriend going all protective mode and ready to kick some ass for him, and as hot as he thought it was, Roier couldn’t let him actually hurt anyone. It was just too risky considering the school’s policy. Roier knew that they did not take violence lightly, even if it was justified. The only times people didn’t get expelled for using violence was because of immediate and witnessed self-defense. Cellbit kicking some homophobes ass was not self-defense, at least to their school.

So Roier didn’t say anything and just hoped that it would get better.

There was also the whole problem with Quackity. Before they went back to school, he had another talk with Cellbit about how they were going to handle seeing him.

“I know you’re mad. I am too. But you cannot say anything to him or touch him. I know you want to and believe me, if I could, I’d punch him so hard in the face that he would forget his own name. But we cannot risk that.”, they were sitting cross-legged facing each other on Cellbit’s bed. Roier was holding Cellbit’s hand in his.

Cellbit sighed but nodded slightly. “I will try my best.”

“No, you have to promise me that you won’t do anything. Please Cellbit, I need you with me in there. I can’t lose you too.”

Cellbit squeezed his hands before nodding again. “Okay I promise that I will not touch Quackity or talk to him. I will just ignore him.”, they smiled at each other and Roier pressed a small kiss on his boyfriend’s lips.

Actually seeing the person who completely destroyed his life was a lot harder than he expected. When he came up to them for the first time, Roier immediately felt like crying out of anger. The fact that he had the audacity to look as pathetic and small as he did, as if he didn’t knowingly ruin his life a few days prior made him just so angry. Luckily Cellbit scared him of quickly before he could even open his mouth.

After the school had started their own investigation of what had happened and gone through talking a bunch of students, Quackity didn’t try to talk to him again. From what Roier could see, he was already getting punished for what he did by the other students. Most of them were smart enough to not outright bully him by using violence or insults but they made it clear that he was not one of them anymore.

People outright ignored him whenever he tried to join in conversations. They interrupted him in class and refused to work with him on group or partner assignments. He was automatically picked last in sports class and the whole team would roll their eyes. People would even leave the table once he sat down at one in the cafeteria. It was honestly kind of impressive.

And while a lot of the reactions Roier had gotten because of his coming out in this one week were weird or sometimes really hurtful, this was the part where he could feel the most support. Because most people could agree on the fact that what Quackity did, was awful, even if they didn’t like Roier. Funnily enough not even the homophobes were on Quackity’s side because well, everyone knew that he was bi, so they avoided him like they always had.

••••••••••••

Christmas was hard to describe for Roier. He always loved Christmas, it was his favorite holiday. He loved the decorations and the lights. He loved the Posadas and Piñata’s when he was younger. He loved baking with his mother and his sister. He loved getting all cozy with some hot chocolate, pretending like it was super cold and snowy outside, even when it wasn’t. He loved to make gifts for others and then on Christmas Eve opening them. He didn’t even mind going to the Midnight Mass. And while his mother wasn’t as happy about it, Roier also loved the westernized Christmas traditions. Both the Mexican and the more Western traditions were dear to his heart. He loved everything about it.

But this year was different. Cellbit and Bagi’s parents loved Christmas as much as he did, while his boyfriend and Bagi weren’t as enthusiastic about it. When Roier started to stay with them, they already had decorated the whole place and the weeks prior, Cellbit’s dad had been baking Christmas cookies as well. He had already told them about his love for Christmas before which was why he wasn’t surprised when Cellbit’s parents asked him to help with some final decorations or baking cookies. He knew that they were doing it to distract him from everything else going on, but he couldn’t even be mad at them, especially not because it was working. These were some of the rare moments when he wasn’t thinking about his parents or his sister.

At least that’s what he thought until the last day before Christmas. It was then when it hit him that even though he loved all the decorations, food and customs around Christmas, it just wasn’t the same without his family. He loved baking Christmas cookies and decorating Christmas trees, but he was doing it without his family. Because they had kicked him out. That night he fell asleep crying in Cellbit’s arms.

The day of Christmas Eve was extremely hard on him. He didn’t want to ruin the day for his boyfriend and his family, and he really wanted to enjoy the Christmas spirit and everything he’d usually enjoy but every time he looked at the socks hanging on the windows, he thought about his sister. Every time he walked by the kitchen to see Cellbit’s parents preparing the dinner for later, he thought about his mother. And every time he closed his eyes to get away from all of this, he saw his father’s angry face and the disappointment and disgust in his mother’s face. It was a rough day.

Still, he knew that Cellbit and his family were really trying to make this day as easy and enjoyable as possible. Cellbit’s dad had asked him if he wanted to have traditional Mexican food for Christmas Eve or not. When he said yes, he asked him what he wanted to have exactly and if he wanted to help cooking or not. Cellbit was constantly either holding his hand, hugging him, or touching him in any way possible which helped him a lot. And he was pretty sure Bagi kept on complaining about Christmas on purpose just so that he would have something else occupying his mind.

And as terrible as the circumstances were, it wasn’t a bad Christmas at all, which he didn’t know if it made him feel even worse or better. He didn’t even know what he was feeling anymore. But they had eaten a mixture of traditional Brazilian and Mexican Christmas food, exchanged gifts and watched some old Christmas movie. Cellbit’s family wasn’t religious, so they didn’t go to church but instead stayed on the sofa just talking about past Christmases, different tradtions and drinking tea. Tina called in between to also wish them a Merry Christmas and to confirm that she was indeed doing okay. It was a good Christmas.

The days afterwards were a bit easier. Lucky for him, the rest of Cellbit’s family still lived in Brazil so they didn’t go to a big family reunion, and no one came here so that awkwardness and heart break was successfully avoided. Cellbit told him that the last time they had a big family reunion was ages ago and that they almost lost all contact with their family anyways, though Roier didn’t know if he was just telling him that so that he wouldn’t feel bad.

New Year’s Eve was fun. They went out to dinner to what Roier thought was a fancy restaurant but ended up being a small family-owned Mexican restaurant with about 5 tables. Not that he minded it, it was very comfortable and cozy. The food reminded him very much of home and he almost started crying but then Cellbit pointed out some white man struggling with the spiciness of his food, and he couldn’t help himself from laughing. Later on, they did a bunch of New Years Eve traditions, both Brazilian and Mexican. They had actually decided to do as many traditions as they could possibly do, even ones that weren’t as common. He also called Tina again who told him about her boring relatives. It was a lot of fun and that night Roier fell asleep with a smile on his face and his boyfriend in his arms.

After New Year’s Eve things felt a bit easier for Roier. It felt more natural to be with Cellbit’s family, there was more of a routine. Obviously, it still felt a bit like he was intruding but it was a lot better than before the holidays. It even went as far as that he didn’t have his own family in the back of his mind for a few days.

That didn’t last too long though before they got a call from Child Protective Services a few days after New Year’s Eve. They had done their investigation and talked to Roier’s parents. They made it clear that they did not want him back. The social worker said that there were a bunch of other things said, which she didn’t want to repeat but they were very adamant about their decision. The next thing on the agenda would be to accommodate Roier with another family member but as Roier predicted, all of them refused to do so. The only person who agreed to take him in was Vegetta but after talking with his school and Cellbit’s parents, CPS decided that pulling him away from the support system he had here could cause more harm than good. Which basically meant be could stay with Cellbit’s and Bagi’s parents for now.

“And what about Leo?”, Roier asked Cellbit’s parents who had just explained all of this to him, Cellbit and Bagi. The other two were still doing celebratory dances in the living room while he was still sitting on the sofa, processing the information he had just gotten.

Cellbit’s mother smiled. “She’s going to go and live with your cousin for a bit until CPS decides what’s best for her. It’s possible that he will become her primary caretaker.”

Roier released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. That was good news. Vegetta had always adored Leo and Leo always loved hanging out with Vegetta. And Vegetta would allow her to dress the way she wanted and just be her true self, so Roier was really relieved. Until he realized something else.

“Wait but that means I’m going to have to travel all the way to Vegetta’s if I want to see her. Is she already with him? I really want to see her.”, he couldn’t help but feel a bit heartbroken. Obviously, it was good that his sister was going to be safe, but Vegetta lived about 4 hours away from them. He wouldn’t be able to see her very often.

The doorbell rang and Cellbit’s father stood up to open the front door while Cellbit’s mother put her hand on Roier’s hand. “She’s here right now. You can see her before they are leaving.”

“Wait really?”, Roier immediately stood up and ran to the front door which was held open by Cellbit’s father. He had smug grin on his face when he saw Roier come running towards him. When he reached the door, the first thing he saw was his cousin leaning in the doorframe. Contrary to last time, he wasn’t wearing his motorcycling gear but normal clothes. He looked up at him and gave him a comforting smile but before they could say anything, the two of them were interrupted by a screech coming from behind Vegetta.

“Roier!!”, Leo had been hiding behind Vegetta’s legs and was now storming toward him. He immediately picked her up and spun the two of them around while pressing kisses on his little sisters cold cheeks. He could hear both Vegetta and Cellbit’s father laughing and then closing the front door while he was still just holding his little sister as close as possible without crushing her.

Her initial squeals of excitement had morphed into tiny sobs while she was holding onto him as if he was going to vanish right out of her grip. Roier couldn’t help but start crying as well at hearing his little sister cry. She had her head buried in the crook of his neck and was soon full-on crying. He felt his heart break a little as he was trying to comfort her by rubbing her back softly.

A cold hand was wiping away the tears that were streaming down his own face. When he opened his eyes to see who’s hand it was, he saw Vegetta in front of him, giving him another comforting smile. His cousin’s face told him more than any words ever could. He knew that Vegetta understood exactly what he was going through and how sorry he felt that he had to go through the same thing as he did a few years ago. And that he was going to take care of Leo no matter what.

Roier let out a sigh and offered Vegetta a small sad smile. Vegetta nodded and gave him a kiss on the forehead before leaving him and Leo alone in the entryway of the house. He could hear his cousin joining Cellbit and the rest of his family in the living room. At the same time, Leo’s sobs quieted down a bit and she was breathing normally.

“I missed you so much”, Roier whispered while softly stroking his sister’s hair. Leo let go of her strong grip and backed off a little from where she had buried her face in Roier’s neck. She looked at him with still teary and swollen green eyes and a snotty nose.

“Why did you leave me?”, her voice broke as she whispered back to him, staring right into his eyes with a look that Roier had never seen before. And as her voice was breaking, Roier could feel his heart breaking too. He almost dropped her out of shock.

Roier felt sick to his stomach as he softly put Leo back down on the ground and then sat in front of her, now holding her tiny hands. He took a deep breath before asking her, “What did mom and dad tell you about why I wasn’t there anymore?”

Leo let one of Roier’s hands go to wipe her nose with her sleeve. She sniffled quietly and the look on her face got even sadder. “Because you hate us and think we are bad people. Especially me. You found a better family. And that you never want to see me again.”

Roier felt like he was going to throw up. He wasn’t sure what he had thought his parents would tell Leo, but he didn’t think it would be this bad. Somehow, they still managed to surprise him. Roier cleared his throat before taking both of Leo’s hands again and locking eyes with her.

“Leo, I need you to listen to me. Like really listen to what I’m saying. Can you do that for me please?”

She nodded a little.

“Okay.”, another deep breath. “I would never abandon you. I could never possibly hate you. You are my little star. The past few weeks were the worst time of my life because I couldn’t see you. I love you Leo, okay? Please don’t ever think anything else.” He looked at her, desperately needing his 5-year-old sister to understand how fucked up all of this was.

“So, mom and dad lied? You don’t hate me?”

“Yes Leo, they lied. I could never ever hate you. Pinky promise.”, he held up his pinky for Leo to take it, and she did with a small smile on her face.

“Okay but then why did you leave?”

Roier sighed and was about to explain when he was interrupted by the sound of a door opening. He looked over to the door leading to the kitchen and spotted Cellbit poking his head out. “Everything alright?”

Roier felt his heart melt and a smile appear on his face. He nodded and waved Cellbit over to where they were sitting on the floor. His boyfriend smiled back and did just that, closing the door behind him.

“Well Leo, this is the reason why I left. This is Cellbit, my boyfriend. Cellbit, this is Leo, my little sister.”, Roier introduced the two.

Cellbit held out his hand to Leo and did a little bow as if Leo were the Queen herself. “What a pleasure to meet you Miss Leo, I’ve heard a lot about you.” Leo giggled a little and took Cellbit’s hand and shook it lightly. Cellbit then sat down next to Roier and pressed a small kiss on his cheek. Roier smiled softly at their antics but then finished explaining to Leo what happened.

“So, I didn’t leave because I wanted to, Leo. Mom and Dad didn’t like that me and Cellbit are in love with each other. And that’s why they kicked me out of the house and didn’t allow me to see you. I would have never left otherwise.”

Leo looked between the two of them, clearly confused. “But why? Are you a criminal or an evil super villain?”, she asked Cellbit who promptly shook his head. “Are you nice to Roier?”, she continued asking.

Cellbit started nodding before looking at Roier. “I hope I am.”

Roier smiled “Yes Leo, he’s very nice to me.”

“Then why don’t mom and dad let you be in love? What’s the problem?”, Roier wanted to cry and just take his little sister and never let her near anything evil in the whole wide world. He realized once again just how young his sister was, she didn’t even know what homophobia was. She couldn’t even see a problem with her brother loving a boy.

He felt tears well up in his eyes and he struggled to say another word. He bit his tongue, trying to hold back a sob. He looked down, not wanting his sister to see him cry again. Cellbit noticed immediately and softly rubbed his back before taking over. Roier hated that this was going to be the first conversation between his sister and his boyfriend.

“Leo, some people don’t think that a boy and a boy can love each other. Or a girl and a girl. They are homophobic because they think that there is something wrong with two people of the same gender loving each other.”

“That’s dumb.”, Leo blurted out after a second of thinking. Roier let out a wet laugh and Cellbit snickered next to him while he was playing with his hair.

“It is. It’s really dumb but that’s what your parents think of me and your brother.”

A second later Roier felt a pair of tiny arms carefully wrap around his shoulder. He felt himself pull his sister closer so that his head was resting her chest since he was sitting, and she was standing. Cellbit still had his hand his Roier’s hair and Leo was softly petting his head.

“I’m so sorry Ro. That’s really unfair and mean.”

Roier swallowed hard, trying really hard not to full on sob at his sisters words and hummed in agreement.

“It is but it’s not your fault.”

They stayed like this for a while before Roier pulled away from Leo and looked up at her. Leo used the sleeves of her jacket to wipe away the tear streaks on his face. Roier laughed a little while thanking her, before taking a deep breath to gather himself and then standing up.

“Okay enough of this sadness. Let’s go and see where the others went, hm?”, Roier suggested while unzipping Leo’s jacket and hanging it next to the other jackets on the wall. Leo proudly told him that she could get her boots on and off all by herself now while doing just that. Roier smiled at her with pride.

He then took Leo’s hand and the three of them went into the kitchen where the others went. Vegetta was sitting at the table with Bagi and Cellbit’s parents, laughing and talking animatedly. When he saw them entering, his cousin stopped in his tracks and stood up to walk over to them. Cellbit immediately took the hint.

“Hey Leo, how about we let these two talk about boring adult stuff and I will show you my and your brothers room?”, he suggested, holding out his hand. Roier didn’t know if his sister was really just so smart to know what was going on or if she really trusted Cellbit this much already, but she nodded and took his boyfriend’s hand and left with him.

The second the two left again, Vegetta arrived in front of him and pulled him into a tight hug. Every barrier that he had built to not cry again immediately came crashing down and he completely broke down in his cousins arms, clutching his shirt the same way Leo had done with him earlier. His cousin was caressing his back and holding him up as his legs were giving out.

Vegetta had always been an older brother figure for him that he looked up to. When he was younger, his aunt and uncle – Vegetta’s parents – used to live right across the street and the two of them would spends a lot of time together. It was only when they got older that they talked less but they were still close.

He still remembered how messy Vegetta’s coming out was. His parents essentially doing the same thing as Roier’s, kicking him out immediately at age 15. And the rest of their family refusing to talk to him or help him. His cousin was living on the street for a while because he had no one. Roier remembered his cousin completely disappearing for a long time, he couldn’t remember how long it actually was. At some point he just showed up again, looking like he had been through a lot. Vegetta never talked about what happened in that time frame and he moved in with his best friend. He went back to school and ended up having to repeat twice, which was why he only graduated last year even though he was already twenty.

In short, Vegetta’s coming out was disastrous which was why Vegetta was the only one who could understand him, even though Roier still got lucky. Vegetta’s boyfriend at the time, Rubius, was an awful person who didn’t care about him. But their whole family rejecting him and getting thrown out by his parents, yes, Vegetta must have been getting flashbacks to what happened for sure.

Neither of them said anything while they were hugging and Roier was sobbing into his cousin’s hoodie. Vegetta was just rubbing his back and holding him as he let everything out that had been hurting him in the past few weeks. It’s not like he was holding back in front of Cellbit but there were still things that he hadn’t fully processed and having his cousin by his side, the only person who could understand him, let out a whole lot of emotions.

They stood like this for a while, it could’ve been a few hours or only a few minutes but at some point Roier pulled himself away from his cousin’s embrace and took a deep breath. Vegetta looked at him and sighed quietly.

“I’m so sorry Ro, I always hoped that this wouldn’t happen to you.”

He let out a sigh as well and nodded while sniffling softly.
“Yeah, me too.”

••••••••••••

Vegetta and Leo stayed for a few hours and together with Cellbit and his family, they discussed how things were going to go from now on. Roier would try to visit Leo as often as possible, but they already knew that, especially when exam season hit, they weren’t going to see each other that often. Neither Leo nor Roier liked this, but this was just going to be their reality for now.

Cellbit’s parents offered any support that they could give to Vegetta since raising a 5-year-old at the age of 21 was not that easy and definitely not that cheap. Vegetta thanked them but said that he will probably be fine as his job was quite flexible and paid him well enough. Vegetta was also going to serve as a witness in court as he directly experienced how homophobic Roier’s parents were.

Sadly, at some point Vegetta and Leo had to get going as it was slowly getting dark and they had quite the drive ahead of them. They said their goodbyes with a heavy heart and a few tears from Leo and Roier.

Afterwards him and Cellbit lied down on their bed, the latter holding him close as he was staring at the ceiling.

“What did you think of her?”

“She’s super cute. But she looks nothing like you, sorry to say that.”

Roier laughed a bit. “Yeah, no she doesn’t.”

“She does look a bit like Vegetta though.”

“I know right? He always denies that, but they do look similar. Weird”

“Weird.”

••••••••••••

And then came the day that Tina suddenly stood on their front lawn.

Cellbit’s parents had just suddenly left after a phone call without saying anything else. All of them were in the middle of doing the dishes after dinner when Cellbit’s mother picked up her ringing phone and went into the living room. None of them played attention to what she said but when she came back, she grabbed her husband by the hand and the two left the house.

The three of them looked at each other confused and then finished up cleaning the dishes, waiting for Cellbit and Bagi’s parents to return. They jokingly theorized what could’ve happened, trying to not think too much about the worried look on both adults faces that all of them definitely saw. They started making up scenarios about how this was how they escaped to go and party.

When they pulled up in the driveway, the three of them stood at the entrance, trying to look like disapproving parents, ready to scold their “children”. But when Tina got out of the car, Roier felt his heart sink. His mind was immediately playing the most horrible scenarios of how Tina’s parents kicked her out and disowned her and did terrible things to her. He was already imagining the worst outcomes before he could even hug her.

He quickly discovered that his best friend was not injured and seemed to be doing okay but the fact that she was even here with them meant that something went wrong. He took her bags out of her hands while waiting for Bagi check if Tina really was okay. He didn’t even care that his feet were getting wet and cold through the thin layer of snow. When Bagi seemed to believe her girlfriend, the three of them went inside. Cellbit had watched the whole thing go down from the entry way.

While drinking a cup of hot chocolate, Tina told the three what had happened in the past hour. She seemed to go through something similar as he did the past few weeks, a bittersweet mixture of relief and regret.

“I’m glad that its out and that my dad supports me, but I know nothing is ever going to be the same now. I don’t even know what’s going to happen now.”

“No one really knows that. But having the support of your dad is at least something you can rely on for now. And on us obviously.”, Cellbit chimed in from behind Roier who was leaning against him.

“Are you going to come out in school as well?”, Roier asked.

Tina took a look at Bagi, grabbing her hand before sighing and shaking her head.
“No not for now. I’m sorry but I want the stuff at home to settle down first before facing the chaos that will be coming out at school.”

All of them nodded in agreement.
••••••••••••
After all of these up and mostly downs in the past few weeks, there were two things that truly brought Roier joy when school started again.

On the first day their teacher announced that Quackity would not graduate with them and that he was actually going to be absent for the rest of the year. Due to that the head of the student council was gone and they decided there would be a reelection in the next few weeks. Last year Roier would’ve been beyond excited to participate and try to go for head of student council but right now there was so much going on in his personal life that he decided to not even try.

Still, he was happy to not have to see the person that tried to ruin his life anymore. There were lots of rumors going around about what actually happened to Quackity, but Roier didn't really care about that.

The other thing that happened was Cellbit asking him to go to the spring ball with him. They had gotten their invite to the spring ball two days after Tina, not that that meant anything, the invites never arrived on the same day for everyone. So, when they came home from the first day of school after winter break, the three of them found the invites on their respective plates at the kitchen table.

Bagi proudly exclaimed that her and Tina were going together when Cellbit looked over at him, holding the letter in his hands.

“I’m sorry, I kind of forgot to ask you earlier with everything going on. But do you want to go to the spring ball with me?”, he suddenly seemed a bit nervous, as if Roier might say no.

Roier grinned. “You didn’t need to ask, of course we’re going together.”

Chapter Text

Tina’s father stayed true to his word and the very next day, after school, he was standing at their front door, ready take his daughter back home. Bagi’s father had opened the door for him while Tina and her were standing upstairs at the same place where Bagi had kissed Tina on the cheek for the first time, listening to their conversation.

“But I did want to meet my daughter’s girlfriend, if that’s okay.”, they heard him say and Tina opened her eyes wide in shock. Bagi felt also pretty stunned by this and the two of them just stared at each other in silence for a few seconds before Bagi’s father called out for them.

“Girls, I know you heard that. Would you come down please?”, he yelled.

Bagi quickly recovered from her shock and grabbed her girlfriend’s hand while nodding to herself. They both took a deep breath together and then climbed down the stairs. They stood next to Bagi’s dad and looked at the man who was standing outside the door.

The moment Tina came into the field of view for him, her father started smiling brightly. He took a small step forward but then backed up again, seemingly unsure if a hug would be okay or not. He ended up just waving at the two of them before extending his hand to Bagi.

“Hi, it’s nice to meet you. I’d say that I’ve heard a lot about you but to be honest the only thing I know about you is that you make my daughter really happy, and I think that’s the only thing I need to know. But I’d still like to get to know you more if that’s okay.”, he rambled a little with a nervous smile.

She laughed a little, Tina’s dad was pretty similar to his daughter in that sense. She shook his hand firmly before giving him a friendly smile back. “I’d like that too.”

She could see Tina’s father let out a relieved sigh before he let her hand go. His eyes wandered to Tina who had watched their whole interaction with a small smile. She still seemed like she couldn’t believe that this was really happening, but she also seemed to be so happy at the same time.

Tina turned towards her to give her a kiss on the cheek before grabbing her bags and her coat.
“Okay, I’m going home now. See you tomorrow angel.”
“See you tomorrow, love.”

And with that Tina went back home with her dad, both of them wearing huge smiles on their faces.
Neither Bagi, nor her parents had any concerns sending Tina back home to her father. Though he seemed to be a bit nervous, he seemed to be really putting in the effort to make his daughter feel comfortable and happy. Even if that meant going against his own beliefs until that point. And that’s more than Bagi could ever ask for.

===============

When the school announced that Quackity would not be graduating with them, Bagi felt a lot more relaxed. She never really liked that guy in the first place. He always seemed a bit suspicious in her opinion. And she knew that now both her brother and Roier could at least have a little bit more peace. Of course, Quackity leaving didn’t mean that all the homophobic people would stop but the school has also spoken out a warning for bullying. They were going to pay a lot more attention to discrimination than before and the punishment would be lot higher.

Bagi really hoped that this would at least make things a little bit easier for the two of them and also for her and Tina in the future.

They had talked about coming out when Tina had stayed the night at their house. Doing it all at once could be a good opportunity to get it over with quicker. But it could also possibly make things a lot worse. Of course, their situation wasn’t even comparable to what Roier was going through but it did show that it wasn’t that easy.

So, they decided to give it a few weeks until at least all the legal stuff between Tina’s parents was over and her mother couldn’t do anything anymore. And also, until they knew that Tina’s dad being supportive wasn’t just a spurt of the moment thing but that he was willing to keep his promise and also eager to learn.

This meant that the two of them were still trying to meet up secretly in classrooms. Now they at least sometimes had their guards, Cellbit and Roier, making sure that no one else could get in. Sadly because of exams and everything, there wasn’t a lot of opportunities for them to meet up. But since they didn’t have to be careful anymore, they met up outside of school as much as they could. Obviously to study, which they did actually do, but at least they could be near each other.

And because of that, Bagi would come over to Tina’s place more often. Mostly just because she could now and also because her brother and Roier could be very annoying, even though she loved both of them. Sometimes she couldn’t be near the two of them while they were constantly into each other’s faces. It was quite disturbing. Not that her and Tina were any better but that was not the point here.

The point was that Bagi would come over more, even when Tina’s dad was home or going to come home while she was there. And the two of them quickly got to know each other because, to Bagi’s surprise, Tina’s dad was actually very interested in his daughter’s life and also very much willing to help with anything he could. Which most of the time ended up with him trying to help them study. He’d ask them questions about their material and sometimes try and explain things in a different way, especially in biology, Bagi’s weakest subject.

He also made them dinner and would eat with them, asking about all the gossip from school. He would tell them about his own stories from his time at school or at university. It was actually quite interesting.

And to Bagi’s delight, their apartment started to look less and less like a doctor’s office or hospital. Though Tina’s father still preferred minimalism, he confessed to them that he always hated how white and sanitary everything looked. He was asking them for some suggestions to make it look more inviting and cozier. They started with small things like colored cushions and blankets on the sofa or a few more plants here and there. And soon he’d bring home paintings or pictures he’d found at a garage sale. In only a few weeks, the whole apartment was a lot more comfortable to be in.

Tina’s dad was definitely a good father and Bagi could not be happier to be able to witness this. Especially since she could see how much happier Tina was. Her girlfriend had told her about how her father used to be like when she was younger and how they had a really strong bond. Bagi could see how happy it made Tina to have her father back.

Of course, not everything was perfect now. Tina had told her how she thought a lot about her mother. Even though the past few years had been very difficult with her, Tina had still loved her mother a lot. She had looked up to her and wanted to become just as ambitious as her. She was a role model to her. And she really wanted her mother to love her the way she was.

“But she didn’t even love me the way that I was before she knew I was a lesbian. I was never enough for her. My grades were never good enough and even with cheerleading there was nothing I could do to satisfy her. I always had to be perfect in her eyes and I never was that. I was not worthy her love.”, Tina confessed to her one time when they were sitting in the living room of her and her father’s apartment.

“I’m so sorry love. I hope you don’t believe any of that. You’re more than enough and you’re always deserving of love, no matter what you do.”, she said as she was threading her fingers through Tina’s soft hair.

===============

Meanwhile things with Roier’s family were moving forward quickly. Now that Roier’s little sister was in safety, CPS was pushing the investigations even harder and a few weeks after school had started again, they got a letter from CPS.

Bagi was the one who had taken out the mail from the letterbox and quickly ran inside when she saw that it was addressed to Roier and that it was from Child Protective Services.

They all gathered in the kitchen as Roier opened the letter. It was completely silent as Roier and Bagi’s dad, who was standing right next to him were reading through the letter. Her and her brother exchanged concerned glances as the silence went on longer. It was eventually broken by Roier letting out a sigh. Bagi couldn’t tell if that was a good or s bad sigh.

“There’s a court date. In like-”, Roier looked at the calendar that was hanging on the wall. “three months.”

“What?”, Bagi looked at the date on the letter. “ That’s like right in the middle of our final exams?”, she exclaimed.

Roier only nodded, clearly overwhelmed by the whole thing and let Cellbit hug him tightly. Bagi softly rubbed his shoulders.

“You can do this Roier. You’re not alone.”, she said firmly.

Both her parents agreed. “We have an excellent lawyer who will tell you exactly what you need to say and who will help you prepare.”

“And we already study together. You will be okay.”, Cellbit added.

===============
Additionally, to the school start, preparations for the spring ball were taking off, including the dance practice for the couples dance which would start off the whole event. Everyone who hadn’t already found their dance partner for the ball was now frantically searching for one.

Luckily the school was progressive enough that it did not matter who was partnering with whom. The only rule was that only two people could be dancing together at the same time. But no one had to have a fixed partner throughout the whole evening nor did the gender of both parties matter. They only asked to keep the same partner for the dance lessons to avoid chaos.

Even though it wouldn’t be that abnormal for Tina and Bagi to dance together, since a lot of girls wanted to dance with their best friends instead of a man, they decided to go the safe route and ask their friends. Which resulted in Tina dancing with Etoiles and Bagi dancing with Foolish. They decided to ask these two as they knew about their relationship and that Tina and Bagi planned to dance together at the actual event. Luckily both of them agreed immediately.

When they arrived at the first dance practice, a sudden concern came into Bagi’s mind about something she didn’t think about before. If Foolish was going to learn the leading part, then Bagi wouldn’t really be able to do dance with Tina at the spring ball. Because both her and Tina would learn the same part for the dance.

She was about to bring this up to Foolish when the dance instructor asked all the leaders to stand on one side and the followers on the other side. Bagi was about to go over to the followers side in a panic when Foolish held her back.

“I’ll do it, you can lead me. It will be fun.”, he grinned at her and then quickly ran over to the followers side and stood next to Tina. The other followers were Pac, Roier, Guaxinim and Slimecicle. And obviously a bunch of other people from their year that Bagi didn’t know.

Bagi felt herself relax immediately and smile at her friend with gratitude.

The rest of the dance practice went without any hiccups. Her and Foolish had loads of fun since he was a lot taller than Bagi which meant that he had to bend down or crouch a little bit for some of the dance moves. It made them laugh a lot because they knew how ridiculous they probably looked.

She looked over to her girlfriend to see her and Etoiles seemingly having a good time as well. Both of them were laughing at something that Etoiles had said, while trying to still keep up with the dance instructor’s calls. When she looked over her brother and Roier, the two of them looked just like they always did: Madly in love with the other. Just staring into each other’s eyes and smiling the whole time.

Fit and Pac were both very focused on their dancing, both of them accidentally stepping on the others foot more often than not. And Mariana and Slimecicle were quietly arguing about something, a very usual sight between the two of them. Guaxinim was blushing fiercely throughout the whole thing while his dance partner seemed completely oblivious.

===============

At the same time as the dance practices were starting, everyone started getting their outfits together for the big day.

Both Roier and Tina had been looking forward to this for a while and so did their parents which was why both of them already had their respective suit and dress ready.

Roier’s suit was obviously red, as anyone would’ve expected. But it was more on the burgundy side of red. With it he was going to wear a black button up shirt and a golden necklace and bracelet. He was also going to wear a black tie, but Bagi was sure that he’d not end up wearing it for long. The Roier she knew was hot all the time and would have to open at least one or two buttons on every button up he owned. The whole suit was definitely on the simpler side, but everyone agreed that it suit Roier really well.

To the surprise of almost everyone, Roier on day, a few weeks before the spring ball, came home with a pierced earlobe.

“I always wanted to do it, but my parents didn’t allow me to do it. And it could’ve also been a bit difficult with the healing because of basketball.”, he explained to them with a huge smile.

Since their latest win and also another exam season coming up, basketball practice was paused for a few weeks. Roier also told them about his plan of having the piercing heal until spring ball to that he could wear some fancy golden, dangling earring. Cellbit seemed very happy with that idea.

Tina’s dress was also very fitting and obviously very gorgeous in Bagi’s opinion. It was a light lavender shade of purple with the top of it being decorated with petal and leaf shaped pieces of cloth that got less and less the more it went to the bottom. It was a floor length dress and Tina was going to wear small and dainty silver earrings and the necklace with her ring and matching high heels. She also apparently already had an idea of what she was going to do with her hair but didn’t want to tell Bagi everything yet.

“Gotta keep the element of surprise.”, she’d say whenever Bagi would ask her about it. The only reason why Tina even showed her the dress was so that Bagi could match her suit to her girlfriend’s dress. Roier also wanted to keep it a bit of a secret from Cellbit but that was difficult when your partner lived in the same room as yours.

Her and Cellbit only recently heard about the spring ball, so they didn’t have as much time as others to look for outfits. But both of them got quite lucky and we’re able to find a suit that matched their partners outfit.

Cellbit found a dark green suit that was a similar simplistic style as Roier’s. It was a dark emerald shade of green and it looked great with the burgundy of Roier’s suit. He was also wearing a black button up with it and some simple silver necklace.

Bagi decided to go with light green dress pants and a blazer in the same shade. The blazer was a bit more oversized, and the pants were high waisted. Under it she was wearing a white lace corset type of top. Similar to the upper body half of Tina’s dress, it had flower petals on it. With it she was going to wear a bit of golden jewelry, like necklaces and earrings and also add a few chains and braid her hair into a bun.

Everyone seemed to be satisfied with their outfits and the one of their partners. The only one who was a bit unhappy was Foolish when they were presenting their looks to each other.

“Now I respect the both of you so much, you know that. But can I at least make your suits a little bit more interesting? Your suits fit you very well but they are way too boring for the two of you.”, he offered to both Roier and Cellbit. “I will make them match, I promise. You’re going to look amazing.”

Neither of them had anything against it and all of them trusted Foolish when it came to sewing clothes and anything related to that. He had designed his own outfit for the spring ball and had done similar things in the past. He said he’d be done with both suits in no time.

And he was right because just a week later, he gave them the two suits back. Now they had lot more detail to them, like chest pocket made with a different kind of fabric but in the same color. He had also added things like a small, stitched spider on the inner side of Roier’s left sleeve. Cellbit had a cat’s face stitched on the opposite side but at the same spot. He added some golden and silver accents trough stitching to the suits to compliment the jewelry the two planned on wearing. Foolish had also made a few adjustments regarding the size and length of the suits making them fit Roier and Cellbit a lot better.
===============
After lots of preparations and a ton of excitement, the day had finally come. The spring ball was finally happening in the evening of this Saturday.

Decorations for the place where the whole event would happen at, started the day before. Some of their teachers wished them fun and promised to attend as well. Others reminded them that the spring ball was no excuse for not doing their homework. Bagi wasn’t even surprised to hear that.

Just like when they were preparing for Roier’s Birthday, her and Tina got ready together because Tina was going to do Bagi’s make up again. Her girlfriend had stayed overnight after school yesterday. They were getting ready in Bagi’s room, this time not caring about changing in front of each other. Right now, Tina had just finished doing her own make up before she’d move on to Bagi’s when they heard a knock coming from the door to her room.

“Yeah?”, Bagi looked up to the door from the bed where she was watching Tina from.

“Are you any of you naked?”, she could hear Roier’s muffled voice through the door.

“No?! Why would we say yeah if we were naked?”

“Fair.”, he said as he opened the door, poking his head through the opening. He smiled as he saw her in her suit. “Bagi!! You look amazing!!”, he exclaimed excitedly and stepped inside the room to look at Tina. “Aww you look fantastic, Tina.”

Bagi grinned and sent a wink at him. “Aw you really think so? You look amazing too, Roier.”

“You really do.”, Tina added before putting down the brush she was just holding in her hand to put on blush. “Now what can we do for you?”

“Oh, I was just going to ask if you’d put some eyeliner on me? You do it much better than me. And Cellbit is too scared of messing it up.”, he was holding up a red eyeliner.

“I just don’t want to be responsible if it looks like shit.”, they heard Cellbit yell from somewhere behind Roier.

“Of course, come here.” Tina nodded and waved Roier inside.

Roier sat down at Bagi’s desk and let Tina position him in a way where she could reach him comfortably. Bagi noticed her brother coming to lean on the doorframe to watch the two of them as well.

“I thought you were good at putting eyeliner on. That’s why Tina gave you eyeliner for your birthday, no?”, she asked.

Cellbit grinned and shook his head. “No, he can only do smudged emo eyeliner, but Tina can actually do a sharp and pretty eyeliner, which is a bit better for today than Roier’s version.”

Roier made a noise of agreement, trying not to move as much to not disturb Tina as she was putting on the eyeliner.

When she was done, Tina pulled away and took a look at her own work before nodding to herself in satisfaction. Roier took a look at the mirror set up on Bagi’s desk and grinned and nodded as well in satisfaction.

“Thanks Tina.”, he said before standing up, grabbing Tina’s face and kissing her on the temple with an overly exaggerated kissing noise. He giggled to himself before quickly squeezing past Cellbit out the door.

“Roier! You better hope my make-up isn’t smudged now!”, Tina yelled in the directions he took off to. They could hear him cackle before Cellbit closed the door with a grin.

Luckily the make-up wasn’t smudged and Roier got to live another day. Which also meant it was Bagi’s turn to get her make-up done. They did it the same way as last time, with Tina sitting on Bagi’s hips while doing her make up. But this time they didn’t let themselves get distracted by kissing. Or well, at least not as much as last time.

===============

When they were done with that as well, the four of them gathered at the top of the stairs. Cellbit and Bagi’s parents were already waiting for them as they came down the stairs. Bagi could tell that both of them got slightly emotional seeing their children like this, all grown up or whatever. Tina and Roier both offered to take picture of Cellbit, Bagi and their parents and after lots of protest, their parents agreed. Though afterwards they demanded to take a picture of the four children together.

A few minutes later, the doorbell rang which could only mean that Tina’s dad was here to take Bagi and Tina to the venue. They decided to do it that way since there wasn’t enough space for 6 people in their car anyways. And Tina’s dad had promised that he’d obviously be there. So, it worked out perfectly.

Roier opened the door to reveal, as expected, Tina’s father. He pushed the door a bit more open so that Tina’s dad could see his daughter who was standing a bit behind Roier. The moment Tina’s dad spotted both Tina and Bagi, he seemed to get emotional as well.

“Oh my precious girl. You look so beautiful.”, Bagi could only agree with that. Tina had gone for a half up half down with soft curls hairstyle and put on make-up that matched her dress, with purple and silver accents. She looked like a fairy.

“I mean both of you. All of you.”, Tina’s father quickly added, gesturing at the rest of them.

Tina grinned and went to go and hug her dad. Bagi watched them fondly before following her girlfriend. She also gave Tina’s dad a short hug after Tina was done. The three of them waved the others goodbye as everyone got settled in their car before they all took off towards the venue.

Even though it was only a short drive, for Bagi it felt like it lasted ages. The closer they got to venue, the more nervous she got. It comforted her a little bit that Tina seemed to be just as nervous. It was their big day after all.

They had planned for this to be their moment to come out as a couple. It was one thing to dance together at the spring ball, but they wanted to do more than that, just to make sure that they got their point across. Neither of them wanted people to think that they were just friends.

Ever since Cellbit and Roier were outed by Quackity, Bagi had been asked more often if she knew if Tina was dating someone. Because her brother was dating Tina’s best friend, so they must be friends, and she would know stuff like that. Which in Bagi’s opinion didn’t really make sense but they were kind of right about that, she did know if Tina was dating someone.

Their parents and Roier and Cellbit knew about this but no one else did. And even though not the whole school would be there today, everyone knew how quick gossip travels, Roier’s coming out was the best example of that. So, it just made sense that they’d be nervous.

Her and Tina were sitting in the back of the car so Bagi could grab her girlfriend’s hand and squeeze it softly. Tina looked over at her, taking a deep breath and smiling nervously.

“We can do this.”, Bagi tried to convince both herself and her girlfriend to calm them down a little.

“Everything will be fine. No matter what happens, I’m so proud of you. Both of you.”, Tina’s dad added from the driver’s seat, giving them a quick look from the rear-view mirror. He had told them this multiple times over the past few weeks, making sure that they knew how much he supported them.

“Thanks dad.”, Tina smiled while looking back at him. She then squeezed Bagi’s hand back and gave her a quick kiss.

A few seconds later they pulled into the parking lot of the venue. It was their towns gymnasium which had been decorated by a few students, parents and teachers. On the outside there was a big light green banner that had “Spring Ball” written on it in big white letters. A few balloons were attached to the entrance door and there was a wall for people to get their photos taken.

Bagi and Tina shared a look and took a deep breath together before getting out of the car after Tina’s dad had parked it. The rest of their group had parked right next to them, and they were just getting out of the car as well.

Their group, consisting of Tina, Bagi, Roier, Cellbit, both of Cellbit and Bagi’s parents and Tina’s dad, went to get their pictures taken by the photographer in front of the designated spot of that.

After that they all were headed inside, their parents went to find some good seats and the rest of them went to mingle with their friends. Inside, the decorations were very clearly spring themed, with light green balloons and garlands and lots of different colored flower ornaments on the walls and hanging from the ceiling.

The venue was designed to have tables for the students on one side and tables for the parents and families on the other. In the middle was a big space left where they would perform the opening dance.

It didn’t take long before Roier spotted Foolish, Etoiles and Jaiden sitting at one of those tables for the students. They went over and greeted their friends with tight hugs and compliments about their gorgeous outfits.

Slowly more and more people were arriving in the venue, and it didn’t take long until their dance teacher ushered them all to gather on one side of the hall in their designated pairs. With a fast-beating heart, Bagi followed the others to said spot, stopping next to Tina.

She held out her arm for Tina to take and gave her a bright smile. Tina took her arm with red cheeks and smiled back at her. Bagi noticed that a few people were looking at her and Tina with confusion, but it was probably because they thought they would dance with Foolish and Etoiles, who were standing in front of the line that they had formed. Not that Bagi cared what they thought.

Their teacher gave them a signal to get ready and then the music set in. Foolish and Etoiles who had been play fighting the whole time were suddenly standing very orderly, ready to lead them into the hall to begin their dance. Bagi looked over her shoulder to see Cellbit and Roier standing at the end of the line, both smiling brightly.

Bagi had been worried about Roier, as they knew that his family wasn’t going to be there today even though they were supposed to celebrate their moment with their child. But he actually seemed to take it quite well.

Bagi quickly looked ahead again when she heard the music get closer to the part that was their cue to go. She straightened her posture and then they heard their cue and started.

From that point on, everything went by in a blur as Bagi was so focused on Tina and on not messing up her steps that she couldn’t even think about anything else.

And then it was already over, and they were at the end of the dance, everyone getting into the final position which would then smoothly go over into all of them bowing and leaving the dance floor as their families and teachers cheered loudly.

Bagi and pretty much everyone else let out a sigh of relief that everything went well as they were on their way back to their tables. With them finishing their dance, the boring part of the evening began. Their teachers and some higher ups held long and boring speeches about what a great year it had been and how beautifully decorated the venue was. Then their school band performed a few songs, and a poetry slam was performed.

But after that, the fun part of the evening began, as their parents and families were asked to leave and most of the teachers left as well. Because the next part was what everyone had been looking forward too, the party that was just for the students. Obviously since most of them were still underaged, there was no alcohol sold and a few teachers were still there to supervise.

Everyone was all hyped up and quickly said goodbye to their parents. Bagi and Tina on the other side got even more nervous as their plan was about to unfold.

The whole atmosphere of the hall changed, tables were pushed out the way and lights were darkened. A teacher of them who used to be a DJ, set up his booth. A few people changed their outfits to something that was better to dance in.

Everyone hollered when the music finally started. Their whole group started off dancing together in a circle, but it didn’t take long until they lost each other in the crowd. But Tina and Bagi had stayed together, laughing and dancing happily.

They had almost forgotten about their plan when suddenly their song started playing. In the week before the ball, everyone was able to submit song suggestions to their teacher for his set tonight. This was the final puzzle piece for their plan, so they submitted ‘Apricots by MAY-A’. The song that they had listened together on the bus ride months ago.

Bagi gave Tina a huge smile, which was promptly returned. The two of them started singing the lyrics into each other’s faces while smiling the whole time. It felt like there was no one else in the room but them. During the whole song, they got closer and closer until the song reached its peak.

Bagi reached up to Tina’s neck, pulling her closer as she felt a hand on her waist, doing the same. She felt like the world had stopped spinning when she locked eyes with her beautiful girlfriend who gave her a soft smile. And suddenly all nervousness that had built up in the past few days but especially in the past hours, was gone just like that. As she was looking at her girlfriend, Bagi realized that nothing else mattered more to her than the happiness she was feeling every time she looked at Tina. It didn’t matter what other people thought because nothing made her happier than knowing that this was the person who was with her. This beautiful, kind, selfless, brave and funny girl was her girlfriend. And nothing else mattered.

So, there they were, kissing in the middle of the crowd of sweaty teenagers while the music was blasting in their ears and the lights flickering above them. To her, everything went quiet, and all the adrenalines went away. She felt calm, like she always did when she was with Tina. She didn’t care that people might be watching them because for her, there was only the two of them.

She could feel Tina smile against her lips before they separated. Bagi opened her eyes and was greeted by the sight of her beautiful girlfriend looking back at her with a slight blush on her cheeks. She smiled and pressed another small kiss on her lips before separating completely and looking around.

It was only then when it felt like she was pulled back into reality. The people who were just dancing next to them, had stopped and where now staring at them in confusion. Other people further away had also stopped to see what was going on. Bagi was about to say something when Tina beat her to it.

“What? Have you never seen lesbians before?”, she snarled while rolling her eyes. When there was no reaction from the people around them, she continued “What are you looking at?”

And that seemed to make them snap out of it and most people turned around to the person or people, they were dancing with. A few people continued to look back at multiple times as if they couldn’t fathom what had just happened.

Tina turned back to her with a bright grin on her face. And that was enough for her to completely ignore any stares.

At some point the two of them found their way back to Cellbit and Roier and eventually the rest of their friends joined them at the side of the hall. They continued to dance and laugh, have a few non-alcoholic drinks and snacks and over all just have fun for the next few hours.

After a few hours the music was suddenly stopped and a familiar voice sounded through the hall.
“Okay everyone, it is now finally time to announce the spring ball royals.”, Badboyhalo spoke through the microphone while standing in front of the DJ’s set up.

There had been a box with a pens and ballot papers at the entrance of the hall. Throughout the whole evening, everyone had the chance to vote for the spring ball royals, which was supposed to be the “best couple”, but everyone knew that it definitely depended on popularity. Obviously, her and Tina had voted for Cellbit and Roier. Bagi was confident that they would win.

Everyone was looking over to Bad, who was looking at his phone, where he probably had the results. He was frantically swiping over the display.
“Very professional”, Foolish whispered.
“I heard that’s how they do it at the Oscars too”, Etoiles whispered back. Roier snorted quietly, trying to keep down his laughter.

“Ah there we go. Okay, the royals of this year’s spring ball are-“, he took a dramatic pause.

“Bagi and Tina!!”

Bagi’s head immediately turned over to Tina in shock and the two of them were just staring at each other in disbelief while noise erupted.

The others would later tell them that people were applauding but there was also some booing and some commotion because people thought it was rigged. Apparently, Bad had even stated that it was all fairly counted and anyone who disagreed with the results was welcomed to count the ballots themselves.

Neither Tina, nor Bagi had taken notice of any of that as they were both just frozen in shock for almost a full minute. It took a small push from Roier to get them to move towards the small stage where Bad was standing. On their way there, Bagi grabbed Tina’s hand and the two of them climbed the stairs up to the stage.

Bad gave them a small hug and whispered something along the lines of “I am very proud.”. Bagi couldn’t even understand him properly because of the noise, which she could now identify as cheering. It came mostly from the side where their friends were standing and Bagi could feel her heart swell at that realization.

Bad then put two little tiaras on their heads and asked them to say a few words. Tina looked at Bagi with panic in her eyes. Of course, neither of them was prepared for this but from that look, Bagi knew that Tina could not speak right now. So, she took the microphone.

“Well hello everyone. I was not prepared for this because we honestly didn’t even consider winning. Thank all of you who voted for us, I don’t know why you did it but thank you. I also want to thank my brother and all of our friends who made it possible for us to even be here today. And lastly, I want to thank my love-“, Bagi turned to Tina, reaching for her hand with a huge sappy smile on her lips.

“I love you.”

“I love you too”, Tina mouthed back.

Chapter Text

Roier was sitting on the sofa in the living room, scrolling through his phone after he had just come home from another university course. His husband should return to their apartment in a bit as well, depending on how quickly he could wrap up the meeting with his current client. The sun was spilling through the large windows which he had opened, lighting up the whole room. A warm breeze made the light curtains sweep back and forth. It was a warm spring day. Not too warm for him to sweat just from existing but warm enough to comfortably wear shorts and a tank top. At least for him. His husband would probably refuse to wear anything that revealed more than his ankles for another two months before finally switching over to shorts. And then only under a lot of protest. But his husband was freezing like all the time, so Roier wasn’t even surprised. The smell of fresh laundry lingered in the room since he had just put some up on the balcony.

He was looking at his friends social media posts when he suddenly got a notification. When he read the name of the person who had sent him a message, he almost dropped his phone. He felt his heart sink and just froze for a second, trying to process what was happening and what he was going to do next. His body seemed to react quicker than his brain because before he could even decide what to do, his fingers had already tapped on the message, opening it for him to read.

Hi, this is Quackity.
This better be the right number or this is about to be really awkward.
Anyways I know I don’t deserve your attention because of everything I have done to you, so I understand if you ignore this message. But I want to properly apologize for everything because I was too much of a coward to do so 5 years ago. Maybe we could talk in person some time when you’re free.
I hope you can give me another chance.
Quackity

Roier put his phone down on the sofa, staring at the message and trying to figure out what to do now or even just what to feel. On one side he felt a bit empty and apathetic but at the same time his thoughts were running wild. He never expected to hear from Quackity again, especially not in this way. But yes of course he had to come back just when Roier was able to finally move on from everything that happened in consequence of Quackity’s actions.

He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn’t even hear the keys jingling and the apartment door open. He didn’t notice his husband stumbling over the shoes as always, even though he was the one who put them there. Not even the door to the living room opening or his husband’s presence next to him, made him look up. It was only when he felt the sofa dip behind him at the weight of someone else, that he got pulled back into reality. He slightly flinched and whipped his head around to lock eyes with the worried blue eyes of his husband.

“What’s going on, guapito?”, of course Cellbit would immediately know that something was wrong. Nothing had changed in that department over the past few years. Both of them were still able to read the other like a book.

Roier just wordlessly handed him his phone before scooting back to rest his head on Cellbit’s shoulder. His husband’s hand promptly found its way into Roier’s hair while he was reading the message. Roier took in the familiar smell of coffee and the perfume that he bought Cellbit for his birthday a few years ago. The latter huffed as he was finished and put the phone down.

“That’s such bullshit. Who does he think he is?”, he shook his head indignantly while combing through Roier’s hair.

Roier sighed in frustration, rubbing his face. “I don’t know what to do now. Something in me wants to hear him out but at the same time I don’t want to see him at all. I don’t want to talk to him but I- I don’t know. I kind of want to give him a chance. Maybe he has changed.”

Cellbit sat up and turned to him so that they were facing each other. “Okay let’s go through this. Let’s say you do go and meet him, and he has actually changed. Let’s say that he is actually remorseful of what he did. Is there anything that he could say that would change anything for you now?”

“No not really. I was just thinking about how I just recovered and moved on from everything that went down back then.”

“Does him recognizing that he made a mistake and feeling bad for it, make you feel better?”, Cellbit continued to ask.

“I mean a bit, but I don’t need him to tell me that in person. I think I’m good with this message.”

“See, so there is no reason for you to meet up with him.”

“But what if it would change something for him? What if he would feel better-“, Roier cut himself off and looked at Cellbit with a slightly embarrassed smile. Cellbit grinned back amused. “I see now, people pleasing again, right?”

Cellbit nodded while pressing a kiss on his forehead. “Listen, guapito. You can do whatever you want but the way I see it, this conversation doesn’t have any benefit for you. You have moved on and you’re doing really well. Meeting up with him is definitely not going to make you feel better, but it might make you feel worse again. This apology is 5 years and lots of pain too late and he’s only doing this for his own gain. He wants to redeem himself so that he can feel better about himself.”

Roier took a deep breath before nodding. “Yeah, you’re right. I won’t meet up with him, but I do want to message him back.”

Cellbit nodded and hummed supportively, giving him back his phone so that he could type out the message.

Hey Quackity
Unfortunately, this message is 5 years too late. I have just recently been able to move on from the damage you have caused with your unreasonable hate against me. I am doing very well without your apology. So, thanks but no I don’t want to talk to you.
Have a nice life
Roier

Cellbit read through the message before he had sent it and proudly kissed his cheek as Roier hit send after getting his approval.

A few minutes later, another set of keys jingled, and the apartment door was opened yet again. This time Roier reacted to the sound and waited in anticipation for the light steps to reach the living room door. He obviously knew who it was, but it still made him happy to be there when his loved ones came home since most days, he was the last one to come home.

The living room door was opened and a red hat peaked through before the rest of Leo’s body followed. Her shoes, school bag and jacket were already taken off and probably disregarded somewhere on the floor for Cellbit to stumble over later.

“Helloo~”, she sang while skipping towards the sofa and then throwing herself onto it, right next to Cellbit. Both of them greeted her in the same singsang. Before either of them could ask her how her school day was, in true parental fashion, she elbowed Cellbit lightly. “Can you scoot a bit?”

Without hesitation and with an Oscar winning yell, his husband threw himself onto the ground, holding his arm in “pain”. Leo looked at him for a second in confusion before she started giggling. Roier rolled his eyes with a small smile at Cellbit’s antics but then started laughing as well when his husband hit his head on the living room table while rolling around in his injured act.

And with that, the overwhelming thought of Quackity was gone from his mind.

••••••••••••

A few weeks later he received another message from another person he hadn’t talked to in ages. But this time the message was a lot more welcome than the one from Quackity.

He was about to start making dinner for his family. Both his sister and his husband were sitting at the kitchen table, his husband trying to help Leo with her homework, more or less successfully. Not because Cellbit couldn’t understand the homework a 10-year-old had, but because both of them kept on getting distracted by something else and start chatting until one of them, or Roier, would remind them of what they were supposed to do.

Summer had now fully arrived, and the heat was almost unbearable in the middle of the day. Even Cellbit had gotten over himself and started wearing shorts and short sleeve shirts like a normal person. Not without protesting how much he disliked summer, but Roier and Leo were already used to that. Now that the evening had started, it was cooling down a bit, making it comfortable enough to have the windows open.

Roier had just started to lay out the ingredients for the tacos he was going to make, when his phone light up, signaling a notification. He took a look at the display and immediately a bright smile formed on his lips.

Holaa!!!
I am back in the city for a few weeks
Let’s meet so you can catch me up on everything
Oh this is Jaiden btw

He didn’t even spend a second debating whether or not he should agree to meeting up. Right after graduation, Jaiden had used the money she inherited from her parents and travelled around the world while working a little here and there. At some point she had settled on Japan for a while to study something with animation. And now she was finally back.

They had all tried to stay in contact with her but due to time zones and Jaiden’s busy schedule, it wasn’t that easy to keep up to date with each other’s lives and at some point, contact had just died out. No one really to blame here and there was no bad blood from what Roier could tell. That was about 3 years ago. The only thing Roier knew was that Jaiden was apparently still living in Japan, judging from her rare posts on social media.

Hola Jaiden!!
I would be free tomorrow
Let’s meet in that Café near our school
I have so much to tell you!!

He turned around and was about to tell Cellbit about the exciting message he had just gotten when he saw that his sister and his husband were finally really focused on doing Leo’s homework. So, he decided to not disturb their focus and wait until they were done with homework. He ended up dropping the news during then eating dinner.

“Guess who just messaged me?”

“I don’t know? Tina? Foolish?”, Cellbit threw out a few guesses.

“Jaiden”, Roier answered with a big grin on his face.

Cellbit almost dropped the taco in his hands, his eyes widened, and an excited smile made its way onto his face. “No shot! Really?”, he exclaimed.

He nodded quickly and grabbed his phone to show Cellbit the message, watching him read through it quickly.

“Oh my god, that’s so awesome. How long had been since we saw her? Like 5 years?”

Roier nodded. “There is so much she missed. But I wonder what she has been up to.”

“Man I wish I could be there tomorrow. You have to tell me everything afterwards.”, his husband pouted slightly. Tomorrow was a pretty busy day for his husband because he had some work to do and then later on, he would go and meet with his sister.

“She’s staying for a few weeks, I’m sure you two will find the time to meet up too, gatinho.”, Roier smiled in amusement.

“True but still. I’m impatient, you know this.”

“Okay I will try my best to satisfy your want for gossip.”, Roier laughed lightly. If he was being honest to himself, he wasn’t any better than his husband. Both of them loved gossip, especially when it didn’t involve them. Not to the extent of the “gossip girls” from their school days. But they both could admit that there was something to it.

“It’s not a want, it’s a need, guapito.”, Cellbit jokingly corrected him in ever so dramatic fashion. The two of them laughed at that.

“Who is Jaiden?”, Leo piped in curiously from the side.

“Oh God, you don’t remember her, it’s been that long. Fuck, are we getting old?”

••••••••••••

Him and Jaiden had messaged back in forth for the rest of the evening, agreeing to meet at the café for lunch. Both of them were very excited to see the other after such a long time.

So, the next morning, after his husband and sister had already left the house to go to work and school respectively, Roier woke up to get himself ready. He first went into the kitchen to find everything ready for him to make himself some breakfast. Coffee mug already under the coffee machine so that he only needed to press start, a pan on the stove and the egg carton next to it. The table was also already set for him and the other two spots were cleaned up neatly so that no one would be able to tell that two people had eaten there just an hour or two before.

The only hint of other people having been awake before him, was the familiar pink sticky note that was placed on his otherwise empty plate as always. Roier picked it up with a warm smile.

I hope you have a good day with Jaiden today. Enjoy the sun guapito and please tell me all the gossip

Cellbit had written in neat handwriting with a small heart next to it. Roier smiled at that and turned the note around.

Did you know that Pandas sometimes do handstands when they pee?

Leo had written on the backside in her scrawled childlike handwriting. He laughed at his sister’s antics.

This had become a sort of ritual for the three of them. Since Cellbit and Leo had to get up at a similar time to go to work and school, Roier could continue sleeping as his first university course didn’t start until hours later. Cellbit would help Leo get ready in the morning and then drive her to school. In return, Roier would prepare them some food for when they got home. Most of the time they’d arrive at the same time or together, but Cellbit’s job sometimes made in unpredictable how long it would take. Some days he’d work a lot longer and sometimes he was done a few hours earlier. Which was why Leo mostly just took the bus unless her and Cellbit specifically planned for him to pick her up.

Since they wouldn’t see each other in the mornings, the two of them had started to leave him sticky notes each morning so that he didn’t feel too lonely. Cellbit would mostly just put some sappy or flirty stuff on it or wish him a good day. Leo would switch between jokes and random facts. Roier would always leave a sticky note for them as well for when they got home. He mostly tried to match what they had come up with in the morning.

He spent the rest of his morning eating breakfast, doing a little work for university and then preparing lunch so far that Cellbit and Leo only had to turn on the stove and heat it up. He took a green sticky note and wrote

Hope your client wasn’t too annoying and didn’t hinder you from being smart. Enjoy being in a room with AC, gatinho.

With a little heart for Cellbit and

Well what are you going to tell me next? That they do back flips while eating? Those little acrobats

For Leo, with a little panda next to it.

He then got himself ready to go outside and left to catch the bus to his old school. He was running a little bit late when he got to the café. Jaiden was already sitting at a table and waved him over.

Jaiden looked almost the same as she did 5 years ago. Of course, she looked a bit older and not like 17 anymore. The most visible change was the tattoo sleeve on her left arm though. Apart from that she looked pretty much the same. She smiled brightly and opened her arms for a hug. Roier hugged her with an excited smile on his lips. The two of them remained like this for a few seconds, swaying a little side to side.

“It’s so good to see you!!”, Jaiden exclaimed and let go of Roier, looking him up and down. “You haven’t changed a bit.”

“Well, I’d hope I look less like 17. And you also didn’t change that much. Except that.”, he pointed at her tattooed sleeve.

“Oh yeah true. But you know what changed about you? You look happier.”, Jaiden ruffled his hair with a smug smile.

Roier laughed a little while sitting down in the little booth. “Yeah, that checks out.”

“Oh, you have to tell me everything.”, Jaiden sat down across from him.

Before he could do so, the waiter came over and asked him for his order since Jaiden already had her coffee. Roier ordered his go to and then turned back to Jaiden who was waiting impatiently for him to start.

“Okay where should I even begin? What is the last thing you were there for?”

“Uhm let me think. You had the first court date right around our final exams, but I remember there was another one, right? Yeah, I think the whole court process thing was still going on when I left.”

Roier nodded, grimacing at the thought of that time. He paused for a second to think of where to start off and then begun talking.

“Okay well, it did come to a few more court hearings since Leo was involved as well and Vegetta being a witness resulted in a whole different case being opened up against my aunt and uncle, who were witnesses on my parents side. I think it took about a year until their parental rights for me were completely terminated. Which didn’t mean anything at that point anymore because I was only a month away from turning 18, but oh well. At least with that, they also had to financially compensate me for the harm they caused.”

“It then took almost three years until their parental rights for Leo were completely signed over to me. They fought for her a little bit more than for me, but I suppose in the end they just didn’t care that much. During the trial Vegetta still had temporary guardian ship so that she didn’t have to go through foster care.”

“It mostly took that long because I needed to prove that I was capable of taking care of Leo at 18. Luckily my parents basically have to pay me child support, so financially we are doing really well. CPS did want to make sure I wasn’t raising a 6 year old on my own so because of that, and obviously because I love him, me and Cellbit got married three years ago.”, he grinned at the last bit, holding up his right hand and wiggling his fingers.

Jaiden gasped loudly and grabbed his hand to inspect the wedding ring.

“Oh my god. You got married. You motherfucker. You got married at like 19. You’re crazy. Congratulations!! I am so happy for you!!”, she exclaimed loudly and happily.

“Thank you, Jaiden. It was honestly one of the best choices I have ever made.”, he said dreamily and then paused for a second when the waiter brought his coffee. He thanked them and took a sip of coffee.

“Wait before you tell me more, how was the wedding? And why didn’t you invite me?”, she asked, there was no accusatory tone in her voice, only actual curiosity.

“Oh well, it was actually pretty boring because it was mostly because of legal stuff. Not that I regret it or that it wasn’t a good day, but we are going to redo it some day with everyone being there. We just went to the registry office with Tina, Bagi and Cellbit’s parents. That was it. In and out in like 30 minutes. Next time it will be a lot more beautiful and with Leo and all of our friends. And who knows, maybe with our own kids.”, Roier explained.

Jaiden nodded. “Okay I see, I can’t even imagine how that conversation between you two went. And what did his family and Tina say about it?”

Roier grinned when thinking back to that situation.

••••••••••••
Roier had just gotten off a call with his attorney who was helping him get things in order to get full guardian ship to his little sister. She had been in contact with Child Protective Services and told him about the requirements him and Cellbit needed to fulfill to be able to adopt Leo.

”Your relationship is not really that valuable in court until you get married. And it would be better if you had your own place, to show that you’re responsible adults.”

Her words echoed in the back of his head as he went back upstairs to their room to find his boyfriend sitting at his desk, working on some university stuff. He sat down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling, still thinking about what to do now. This wasn’t the first time she had told this to both him and Cellbit.

“What if we just get married?”, he suddenly said.

Cellbit’s head whipped around at such speed, that Roier was worried it might just fall off.
“What?”

“What if we just get married and get our own place? Then the court has nothing to say against our relationship.”, Roier turned his head to look at his boyfriend.

“Top 10 most unromantic ways to propose. Not even a ring? And just for legal reasons? Damn.”, Cellbit joked a little before continuing. “I see what you mean though, but we don’t really have the funds for a proper wedding at the moment, and it will take a while to organize.”

“I will get you a ring, I promise. And we can get married at the registry office pretty quickly and without spending lots of money, I checked.”

“Hm, not how I imagined our wedding to be like, not gonna lie”, Cellbit chuckled a little.

“You already imagined our wedding? Cute. I mean, we can redo it at some point, when we have the time and money and all of that, to do it. This would just be for court, for Leo.”

“And because you love me, right? You’re not only marrying me for legal benefits, right?”

“Of course not. I love you so much, Cellbit. I was ready to marry you like two years ago but I wanted to give us more time. I still want to give us more time, not because I’m unsure about you but because we’re 19 and 20 years old. But this will not be the real thing, just for paper.”

“Good, I love you too.”

“So you’re okay with this?”

“Fuck it, let’s get married.”

Later that day, right before dinner time, when everyone gathered around the table, including Tina who came over for a sleepover, Roier cleared his throat and softly hit the side of his glass with his knife to get everyone’s attention.

“Me and Cellbit have an announcement to make.”

All eyes were on him as he looked over to his, now fiancé, to get his approval one last time. Roier smiled before continuing.

“We are going to get married.”

There was a second of silence before four people started talking at the same time, asking them multiple questions all at once.

“Calm down everyone. Let us explain.”, Cellbit interrupted them, and everyone was quiet again and stared at them in anticipation.

Roier calmly explained to them the reasons why they were doing it even though they were so young. He also told them about their plan of redoing the whole wedding in a few years and how this was mostly because of Leo but also because they did love each other.

After he was done, there were another few seconds of silence that were eventually broken by Tina.

“If I’m not invited to your lame ass registry office wedding, I am going to kill you both.”, which made them all laugh.

“Of course you’re all invited to our boring wedding. But only if you come to the real one as well.”, Cellbit replied.

And with that it was settled and just a week later, on the 16th of June, Roier and Cellbit got married.

••••••••••••

“That’s amazing. Okay now continue in the story.”

“Okay so me and Cellbit got married and then moved into this really nice apartment. That was three years ago and then a year later Leo was able to finally fully live with us. Cellbit finished up his criminology degree and started working as a private investigator. I worked with children for a while, but I noticed that it’s not really for me so now I’m studying photography.”

“Nice, not what I expected but it does sound cool. I kind of expected you to go professional with basketball. What about that?”

Roier hummed. “I did actually receive an athletic basketball scholarship offer for university but I rejected it. I have a kid to take care of right now, I don’t have the time to play basketball that much. I still try to play once in a while but yeah. It’s also just not that fun anymore to play without my team.”

“Ah, I see, makes sense. And what happened with your parents?”, Jaiden asked.

“They did end up spending like 6 months in jail and I received compensation from them. And well the money they have to pay me in child support for Leo.”

“I mean that sounds like it went well for you. Apart from how fucking awful it is that they’d rather pay you loads of money than to have at least one gay kid.”, Jaiden added.

Roier nodded in agreement. “I’m honestly kind of over it. I had to see them for the last time, last year at the court case of Vegetta’s parents. From what I heard, their reputation was ruined, and they obviously lost their jobs so they moved away. I don’t know where they are now but I couldn’t care any less as long as I’m getting the money so I can take care of Leo.”

“That’s good to hear at least. How are Leo and Cellbit doing then?”

“Well Leo is the typical 10-year-old. She likes drawing and she loves playing with Lego. I think she took the whole situation surprisingly well. In the beginning she would sometimes tell me that she missed our parents, but I feel like the older she gets, the more she understands that what they did was awful. We haven’t talked about them since I saw them for the last time. I think it’s also because both Vegetta and Cellbit are great with her. She always loved Vegetta, but she really adores Cellbit. And he loves her too. Him and his parents were supporting me all the way through the past few years. It was not an easy time. Everything following the coming out really did some damage in me. Even though Cellbit and I tried to just be out and proud, it took me years to actually not care anymore about what others thought. But now I couldn’t be happier.”

“Aww Ro. That’s so beautiful I’m going to cry. I’m so happy that you’re happy.”, Jaiden grabbed Roier’s hand and squeezed it softly. Roier squeezed her hand back and smiled at her softly. They stayed like this for a bit before Jaiden took a deep breath, wiping away a small tear. “Okay I think I’m good now. Tell me about Tina and Bagi.”

“Well they are not married, yet. And they also don’t have a kid, yet.”, he laughed a little. “But they do have their own apartment and are very happy together. You remember them coming out at spring ball?”

“Oh yeah, I do. What happened afterwards though, I don’t remember that part.”

“I’d say the reactions were pretty mixed, they got a lot of people who would fetishize them in a really weird way. And some homophobia but no surprise there. I think the biggest problem for Tina was that loads of lesbians and other queer people didn’t want to accept her being lesbian. Because she dated a man before or because she didn’t look like a lesbian. Whatever that means. But the focus shifted pretty quickly to exams and all of that. So, it was similar to my coming out but not as bad with the homophobia from what I witnessed. I think Bagi helped her with building up some more confidence in her identity. So, they are all good now.”

“That’s good to hear. Tell me more about them.”

“They are great aunts to Leo. Sometimes I feel like Leo prefers them over me and Cellbit. Also, I think both of them plan on proposing to the other soon. Tina’s dad is their biggest fan, it’s really cute.”, he paused to take another sip from his coffee. “Tina did her apprenticeship in a bakery and with the money her mother had to pay to her and her dad for, yet again compensation for personal suffering, she opened her own bakery last year. It’s going really well from what I know.”

Jaiden nodded with a look of impressment on her face. “Honestly not what I expected her to do after school, but it is also oddly fitting for her. But wait what was with Tina’s parents again? I remember that her dad had prepared the divorce for years, but did we ever find out why?”

“Oh yeah, we did. He eventually told us that the main reason why he didn’t say or do anything, was because he for one, didn’t even realize the harmful behavior of his wife because he himself was so manipulated and almost brainwashed by her. And then when he did realize, he couldn’t just leave because he was still heavily financially dependent on Tina’s mother. Even though he worked more, he earned a lot less. So he was waiting to save up some money and to collect evidence for court.”

“Which I guess did work out for him pretty well.”, Jaiden paused, taking a sip for her coffee. “What is Bagi doing now?”

Roier laughed. “Take a guess.”

“Oh, she’s doing the same thing as Cellbit, isn’t she?”, Jaiden started laughing when Roier nodded. “Of course she is.”

“Yeah well, the twins are running a private investigation business together. What a surprise.”, Roier joked sarcastically.

“Truly shocking, yeah. What about the other guys? What is Foolish doing?”, Jaiden continued.

“Foolish tried out studying architecture for a bit but he said the whole math part was just too tedious for him. So he switched over to fashion design a two years ago. Oh, and he’s back together with Vegetta.”

“Oh wow, did not expect that one. How did Vegetta feel about Foolish and Etoiles’ relationship?”

“Yeah, none of us really expected it and to be very honest, I didn’t think that it would work out for very long, but they have been back together for three years now. Foolish even moved in with him last year. So good for them I suppose. And I think in the beginning, Vegetta wasn’t that big of a fan, mostly because he’s an old man who doesn’t understand queer platonic relationships but when he got to know Etoiles and saw the two of them interact more, I think he got over himself. The last thing I’ve heard from them was that they were really happy.”

“Good for them.”, Jaiden paused to think for a moment. “Okay anyone else that you can tell me about?”

“Well Etoiles is still doing martial arts but on a professional scale now. Don’t ask me how it works but I think he’s doing pretty well for himself. Fit and Pac also moved together in a different city. From what Cellbit tells me, Pac is doing something with engineering, I think. The last thing I heard about Fit was him being a janitor? I’m not sure if I heard that right though so don’t take my word for it. But they seem to be very happy. Mariana and Slimecicle got married even before me and Cellbit got married. And they do have daughter. I have no idea what either of them are doing job wise and from what Leo tells me, their marriage is just as rough as their relationship always was. But their daughter seems to be doing okay.”

“Interesting...” Jaiden nodded and then she must have remembered something as her eyes suddenly widened.

“Oh my god, do you know what happened with Quackity?”

Roier grimaced at that.
“Well not really but he did message me a few weeks ago, wanting to talk to me. I declined though.”

“Oh well, do I have a story for you then. I didn’t meet him personally, but Slimecicle did, and we met yesterday purely by coincidence. He did tell me what you just told me, but he also told me about how he had met Quackity a few days prior.”

“Okay go on.”

“Well basically after he left school, things didn’t go that well for him. His boyfriend broke up with him because he also didn’t think outing people was a very cool thing to do. His parents sent him to boarding school for his last year of school and he graduated from there. He basically got kicked out once he turned 18 and now he’s like a salesman or something like that. Oh, and he also has a kid, don’t ask me how that happened. But what’s really interesting is what he said when Slimecicle asked him why he did, what he did to you back then.”

“What did he say?”

“He liked you. And you didn’t like him back. So, he decided to just make your life a living hell I suppose. He didn’t say that last part but that’s what I imagine his thoughts were back then. I heard that he does feel bad for it though. Not that it matters.”

Roier rolled his eyes. “Yeah, his sorry ass can fuck off. I’ve had enough of his bullshit. He liked me, wow is that how you treat people who you like? I think the actual reason is just that he’s a fucking awful person.”

“Yeah, he’s a weirdo. We’ve known that though.”

“Anyways, now tell me about you.”

“Well, there is not much to tell. I didn’t have any court cases something like that, but I did start and finish studying graphic design. And maybe one of the reasons why I’m back here because I’m trying to look for an apartment so that I can move back here.” Jaiden smiled sheepishly.

Roier hit the table with his flat hand in shock. “Oh my god you’re moving back here?? When? And why? I mean don’t get me wrong, I’m more than happy to have you back here but I thought you liked Japan.”

“I do like Japan but with how my job works, I can work from anywhere in the world and I’d like to be close to my friends and family. And I’m probably going to be moving here in a few months.”, Jaiden explained.

“Oh, that’s amazing, it will be so cool to have you back here again. I missed you!!”

“I missed you too Ro.”

After that, the two of them continued to chat about many things. They wondered about what their classmates, that they weren’t close to, were doing now. They reminisced in old memories from their time at school as if it had been 50 years since they graduated. And they continued to talk about how things went after school. Sometime in between, they also ordered their lunch and continued talking about their future plans. This went on for a few hours, both of them forgetting the time until the waiter asked them politely if they wanted anything else, which they took as their cue to leave. They said their goodbyes with a promise to see each other soon and to keep in contact until Jaiden moved back.

When he arrived back home, Leo was already there, judging by the shoes at the entrance, which Roier did not stumble over for the record. He softly knocked at her door, waiting for a loud “Come in!”, from his sister. When he opened the door, he saw Leo sitting on her desk, doing her homework. She looked up at him, her long black her getting in her way of sight which she swatted out of the way with an annoyed huff.

“Just letting you know that I’m back home now. How are you doing?”, he leaned against the doorframe.

“I’m fine, math homework is just annoying, but I think I can do it.”, she replied.

“That’s good. If you need any help, you know where I am.”

“As if you could help me with math.”, Leo stuck out her tongue.

Roier gasped and clutched his chest in an offended manner. “How rude”

“Oh, by the way, I’m going to go out and play outside with Trumpet and Juana later, after I’m done with this thing.”, Leo added and pointed at her homework.

“Wow very responsible of you. And yeah of course, just tell me when you’re leaving and when you’ll be back. You know the drill.”, he gave her a thumbs up after she nodded eagerly and closed the door. Their apartment was located at the outskirts of their small city with lots of nature surrounding him. There were mostly other families living in their neighborhood, so Roier wasn’t concerned at all to let his 10-year-old sister play with the other kids outside. They knew not to go too far into the woods and be in screaming distance to the small apartment buildings where their families lived.

He then went to sit down at his computer to do some more university work while waiting for his husband to come home. Said husband had messaged him earlier that he was going to take a bit longer as him and Bagi were discussing their latest cases. He also told him that he would bring his sister and Tina with him for a spontaneous family dinner.

Neither of those messaged surprised him at all. Since Bagi and Tina lived only two streets away from them, they’d often come over to visit each other. The other couple’s apartment was like a second home. He could already them coming in when the keys turned in the lock and he heard a muffled voices through the door, but he continued working on his university stuff until he felt two arms wrap around his shoulders from behind him and then a head softly bump into his from the side. He laughed softly and pressed a kiss onto the mop of hair tickling his cheek.

“Guapito.”, Cellbit murmured into the crook of his neck.

“Gatinho”, Roier replied with a warm smile.