Work Text:
Progress was making his way to Almond’s house on a taxi, porridge and cold medicine sitting in a tote bag next to him. It wasn’t common for him to be the one visiting. Usually, Almond tagged along with him to his home or was the one who made his way there by himself. It felt strange in a good way.
When he got to Almond’s house, he let himself in. He knew Almond’s parents were working and he was stuck in bed with a cold so there was no point in knocking. He headed straight in and made himself home in their kitchen. He reheated the porridge, poured water into a glass and made his way to Almond’s bedroom.
When he opened his room, Progress was surprised that Almond was sitting on his bed, phone in hand.
“If you were awake, you could’ve said something,” said Progress, false irritation in his voice. He put down the porridge and water on Almond’s nightstand and started opening the medicine.
“Nah, too lazy,” responded Almond, not even bothering to look up from his phone. Progress tried handing him the glass of water and cold medicine, but Almond just groaned and kept avoiding taking them.
“C’mon, you need to get better.”
“Ugh, I don’t want to though,” he said, dragging out the last word in a whine and hiding under his bed sheets. Progress rolled his eyes and put the glass of water and medicine back on the nightstand.
“Well, at least eat the porridge, dude,” he said while trying—and failing—to remove the sheets from Almond’s face. Eventually, Almond stopped dodging him and he pulled the sheets off his face.
“Did you make it?” he said with a pout.
“No, it magically appeared in my hands,” Progress answered, his voice laced in sarcasm. “Of course I made it you big baby. Please eat it and don’t make my efforts go to waste.”
After hearing that Progress had, in fact, made the porridge, Almond attitude changed almost immediately. He sat up on the bed, took the porridge out of Progress’ hands and immediately started eating it.
“Woah, this is good!”
“Oh, so now you want it. Okay.”
“Of course. Anything you make is bound to be amazing.” Almond responded without missing a beat. Progress felt his ears go red after hearing that. “Okay lover boy.” He feigned disgust, but his ears betrayed him.
“Anyway, after you finish that, please drink the medicine.”
“Okay, sorry.” Almond responded while chewing.
“Why are you apologizing?” asked Progress with a puzzled look on his face.
“It seemed appropriate.” It always fascinated Progress how almost obedient Almond could get sometimes. It stirred something inside of him. Something he wasn’t sure how to express.
Despite what everyone thought, Progress and Almond weren’t dating. Well, weren’t dating yet. Almond always flirted with him, but he still wasn’t sure if he meant it that way. If he mentioned this to Bew, she would absolutely laugh in his face, but he genuinely didn’t know. If the feelings were mutual, wouldn’t he have already said something? It was all too confusing to Progress, so he just continued to act like normal.
Almond had finished the porridge and drank the medicine a bit ago. One of the side effects of the medicine was drowsiness so he decided to go to bed. Progress sat at the foot of his bed, scrolling on Twitter endlessly. After a while, a post appeared that really caught his eye. It wasn’t the usual brainrot or marvel he would normally see.
How to know if your crush likes you back.
Huh.
Well that was strangely convenient.
He looked back at Almond’s sleeping face and decided to give it a read. It wouldn’t hurt, right? At the very least it would be interesting. He clicked on the thread and began reading.
They consistently reach out and want to spend time with you.
‘Well,’ Progress thought, ‘we both do that.’ He moved on to the next one.
They are more physically affectionate with you than other people.
Again, they both did that. Huh. Was he that obvious?
As he kept reading, the conclusion he came to in every single one was that they both did it. Again and again, that was the only answer that appeared in his head. Maybe Bew was right. Maybe they were just delaying the inevitable. He really did have a big fat crush on Almond. When he reached the end of the thread, he felt just as confused as before but at least it helped him pass the time. He spent a solid 45 minutes just looking at the posts and pondering over them.
He turned off his phone and looked back at Almond, expecting to still see him sleeping, but he was awake, looking at him already.
“Did I wake you up?” he said, slightly embarrassed.
“Nah, I wasn’t too tired to begin with, so I woke up a little bit ago.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
“’Cuz I wanted to look at you. Whatever you were doing made you make a really cute face.”
Besides Almond’s words, his voice also did something to Progress at that moment. It sounded raspier than usual. Probably a combination of the cold and the fact that he had just woken up a few minutes ago. He felt warmth go to his face and he looked away.
“Hey, what’s up? Why’d you look away?” Almond asked, genuine curiosity and slight concern in his voice.
“Um, I think…” a slight pause. Maybe longer than it should’ve been. But Progress continued.
“I think I like you.”
“Oh.”
Oh?
Oh?
What does that mean?
“What does that mean?” Progress blurted out.
“Well,” Almond started as he sat up and pulled his blankets off himself. “This isn’t exactly how I envisioned this going.”
“What?”
To say Progress was confused was an understatement. He did kind of know that Almond liked him, but this was not at all how he expected the older to respond. His mind was going a million miles per hour and showed no signs of stopping. As if Almond picked up on this, he continued.
“I mean y’know, I’m sick right now. We’re in my room which is filled to the brim with Legos. Not exactly the most romantic setting, right?”
“Oh.”
“Yeah.”
There was an awkward silence between them. No one knew what exactly to say, especially not Progress. After a minute or so, Almond continued speaking.
“But wow, I really didn’t expect this today,” he said with a laugh that turned into a slight cough towards the end. “Honestly, I wanted this whole ‘confession’ thing to be more romantic, but you aren’t really the romantic type.”
Somehow that admission took away the thick air of awkwardness around them.
“Wait so you’ve been trying to tell me for a while now?” asked Progress, now feeling very curious.
“Well yeah,” Almond scratched the back of his neck in embarrassment.
“So we could’ve done this so much earlier? Wow…” Progress shook his head and sighed. After feeling stupid for a few seconds, he got up and sat next to Almond on the bed.
“So, are we dating now?” he asked while looking at Almond’s eyes.
“Only if you want us to be,” responded Almond, looking so in love. How did Progress ever miss this? How was he ever so uncertain? He felt like the dumbest guy in the world.
“Then we are,” was all he said as he leaned in and pecked Almond on the cheek.
Even though Progress felt stupid for not noticing earlier, Almond was all snotty, and they were surrounded by Legos, it somehow felt like the most romantic way the evening could’ve gone.
If people thought they looked obnoxiously in love before, they wouldn’t know what hit them after this.