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“I’m not in love with my best friend.” Sword didn’t want to believe it, he couldn’t. He knew Rocket would never accept his advances. If he just told himself it wasn’t true, eventually he wouldn’t get all flustered at the mere thought of Rocket. Maybe.
“Sword, yes you are.” Medkit was sick of Sword by this point. Sword was a complete dumbass whose life would be way easier if he just told Rocket how he felt. How he didn’t get the signs, Medkit will never know.
“No I’m not! I just think he’s cool!” Sword refused to believe it, both for his supposed own good and because he really didn’t want to admit something so… personal to Medkit.
“I hear you moaning out his name every night, don’t even try to lie.”
“Huh-Why are you listening? Anyway, it really isn’t that big of a deal. Plenty of guys think their friends are hot.” Sword was burning at the cheek, face on fire.
“And you love him. Romantically. Just ask him out already.” Medkit was so tired, he wanted to go to bed already. But no, Sword needed help with his stupid love quarrels. “If you don’t tell Rocket by the time you come home tomorrow evening, I am going to tell him myself.”
“What! Don’t do that-Please don’t do that!” Sword was pleading like he was getting kidnapped. He didn’t want to, not yet, no confessions for a while. “I’ll do it next week! I promise!”
“You said that three months ago, Sword. I’m done playing games. Either you tell him you like him as more than a friend or I will. I don’t want to listen to you going on and on about him and then follow it up with ‘but he’ll never date me’ any longer.” Medkit was fed up with Sword’s bull, not caring for how desperate Sword’s woes became.
“But what if he says no?” Sword was begging for his life, trying his hardest to convince Medkit to not force him to confess. He didn’t want to yet.
“Well first off, I’ve seen the way he looks at you. He won’t say no. And if he does, for some stupid reason, he’s not going to make a big deal out of it. He’s your best friend, after all. Now go to bed and think about this in the morning.” Medkit started to head to his room, leaving Sword behind in his room. Sword looked at Medkit dejectedly, keeping his head low out of embarrassment.
“Rocket-”
“Dad, I’m not discussing my relationship with Sword with you.” Rocket was fed up with his dad asking about Sword. Yes, he had a huge crush on his best friend, and yes, his dad did know about the crush, but Rocket didn’t want to get reminded of it all the time. He also didn’t enjoy his father prying himself into a thing that Rocket didn’t want him involved with. He just didn’t like it when his dad forced himself into his romantic life, that was all.
“I just feel bad for you, kiddo. You two are so in-love it’s crazy, and yet neither one of you are making advances. I know I’m not one for romance, but it’s honestly sad that you guys are pining over each other without doing anything.” Zuka wanted Rocket to be happy, and if Sword made him happy, that was great. Zuka also knew that his son didn’t realize how much Sword liked him, and Zuka couldn’t help but feel bad for them.
“But he’s not in love with me!” Rocket ran up to his room and shut the door, slamming the piece of wood behind him and locking it. He just thought his dad was joking him out. There’s no way that Sword likes him back. But the thought… oh, how it brought butterflies to his chest. Rocket laid down on his bed with a plop, reminiscing on how Sword accidentally touched his back earlier in the day. Oh, how his heart pounded. And then, a few days ago, when Sword…
Rocket fell asleep to those thoughts.
Sword woke up not well rested at all. He couldn’t sleep, the thought of his inevitable confession weighing down on his mind. His eye bags were more present than they had ever been before, clogging up his porcelain face. After brushing his teeth and getting changed, he remembered he had a phight going on today. And he would see Rocket. Nice.
“You look like shit.” Medkit took one look at Sword and knew he had stayed up way too late thinking about Rocket. It wasn’t that hard to tell. “Did you stay up thinking about Rocket?”
“Shut up.” Sword was not in the mood to talk. He just wanted to get through the day and not think about his impending confession.
Sword showed up at the phight along with Medkit. They were the first ones there, and had around fifteen minutes to wait until Zuka’s car got there with most of the other phighters. This gave Medkit plenty of time to pry into Sword’s love for Rocket. “So, Sword… when are you going to confess today?”
“Medkit, I don’t even know. I don’t really want to, but you’re just forcing me to do something I don’t want to do.” Sword put his head into his hands, not wanting to speak with Medkit on the subject. There was a pause of silence between the two, which went on for minutes, but finally Sword spoke up. “Why do you want to get into my love life so badly?”
“Because that’s all you talk about. It’s all Rocket this, Rocket that-Speak of the devil.” Rocket ran into the arena, all excited from Sword’s presence.
“Hi Sword! How’s it going? Do you want to come over to my house later?” Rocket was talking at a million miles a minute, clearly flustered from Sword being near him. There was a clear blue tint to his cheeks, and his palms were sweating with nervousness.
“Um, yeah I can come over. Will Mr. Zuka be there?” Sword knew that from this arena, he could just walk to Rocket’s house. He figured that it would be the best place to confess his love to Rocket. His own cheeks went red at the thought of being alone with Rocket.
“Nah, my dad’s doing some work with Broker, so you can stay for most of the evening.” During Rocket’s words, Valk announced the teams and the setup for the phight. “I’ll talk to you later, Sword!” Rocket then walked away from Sword, as they were on opposite teams.
Sword wasn’t really able to focus on the match at hand. He was so caught up in how he was going to confess that his reactions were super slow, especially when Rocket would hit him. Each of those strong hits felt like lightning to his core, and although they hurt, it just made him love his crush more.
As the match finished, Sword walked up to Rocket. “Let’s go to your house, okay?” His palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy, and felt like a pile of mush.
“Alright! Follow me!” Rocket grabbed onto Sword’s wrist in order to move him along the street, making both of their faces flush with the contact. Neither one of them could see the other’s face, but anyone watching could tell that something was going on between the two.
They eventually made it to Zuka’s house. Both of them were completely wrecked in the face, mostly from the hand holding, but a bit from the running. Rocket opened the door and went inside, Sword following behind him. Rocket shut the door and sat down on the couch casually, noticing the strong blush of Sword’s face. “Hey Sword, why’s your face so red?”
“Oh, just from the running to get here.” Sword looked down, not wanting to look Rocket in the eyes. If he did, he knew that he would just explode.
“Running alone wouldn’t get someone that fired up in the face. Tell me, why’s your face like that?” Rocket poked further, wanting to know the real reason. A little part of him, deep down, wanted to believe that Sword was flushed from the hand holding, but his brain would not allow him to believe that.
“Umm… here, I’ll sit down and I can explain…” Sword’s brain was spinning in circles, not really knowing how to deal with the stress of confessing. He sat down on the couch, sitting right next to Rocket.
“It’s okay, just spit it out.” Rocket wanted to know and he wanted to believe that Sword liked him back. In his mind, he was praying to the SFOTH, praying that his dream would become reality.
“So… I’ve liked you for a while now.”
“And I think… I love you. Romantically.”
“Would you be my boyfriend, Rocket?” Sword reached out his hand to Rocket, looking into his eyes with hope.
“...Rocket?”
“...Yes.”
And then Rocket kissed him.
Sword’s whole world was spinning, his mind muddled and confused. It was only a small, chaste kiss-it shouldn’t have gotten him this excited. But it did.
Sword leaned in for another kiss, this time for longer. No spit was exchanged, it was lips against lips, Sword sitting on Rocket’s lap.
And then Rocket stuck his tongue in.
Sword felt like he was on drugs. The way this felt was out of this world. It wasn’t his first kiss, but it might as well have been. He wrapped a hand around Rocket’s back, leaning him in closer. Rocket moved his flesh hand to feel up Sword’s wings, making Sword squirm.
They stopped for a moment to regain their composure, and then went right back to making out. Their lips against each other’s, their tongues lacing each other, it was the greatest thing he had ever experienced. He could feel himself getting somewhat hard, and Sword could definitely feel a bulge from Rocket’s pants. He went to run his hand downward, feel up the erection, when suddenly-
The door opened, revealing a shocked Zuka.
As soon as the door was opened, Sword jumped off Rocket. “Huh? Why’d you-oh shiiittt. Hi d-dad.” Rocket wiped his lips off and stayed on the couch, staring at his father. Zuka looked like he had just seen a ghost and he quietly walked over to the master bedroom, entering and locking the door behind him. “I think we just freaked out my dad.”
“Yeah. So, can I call you my boyfriend?”
“Oh, absolutely.”
“You don’t know how happy that makes me.”
“No, you don’t know how happy that makes me! Now come to my room. I have a good movie we can watch.” Rocket gave Sword a quick peck on the cheek.
Sword reminded himself to say some thanks to Medkit for forcing him to confess.