Work Text:
The realization Shuriken was in love with Boombox hit him one day. Hard. Right in the face with a pillow, swung with perfect aim by the inphernal of his affection.
“C’mon man, it’s your turn.”
He was sitting on the floor of Skateboard’s tiny apartment, watching Slingshot and Boombox’s pixelated characters try and maul each other on the tv screen. The former invited Shuriken to join them, especially after all of Slingshot’s rants about Coil. Slingshot wanted someone guaranteed to be on his side in case an argument took place (a dumb excuse, but Shuriken always wanted to spend more time with his kinda-friends- did they consider him as a friend?, especially Boombox). The screen was now on a bright red GAME OVER sign and they were rearranging themselves.
There wasn’t even a particular reason or amazingly grand circumstance causing this equally part wonderful and horrifying realization for Shuriken. Unfortunately, despite his protests against Vinestaff’s insistence on watching mushy romances when it was her turn to choose movies, he wanted something like that, staring into the deep abyss of someone’s eyes and finding a connection at first sight. Life doesn’t work like that though, and now Shuriken was on the floor of a crappy apartment and squished besides his buddies; not a good time to come to terms with his feelings for the guy sitting pretty close to him.
“Hey, you good?” Slingshot waved his arm in front of Shuriken’s face and he quickly blinked a few times, trying to forget about what he was just thinking of.
“Huh? Oh yeah! You can skip my turn, just go again or something Sling.”
Slingshot narrowed his eyes. It was not normal for Shuriken to decline his turn, he was often the one hogging controllers, begging to go again. He shrugged it off and handed his controller to Skateboard, deliberately ignoring Coil, though it was his turn next. Slingshot thought Shuriken was stupid, he wasn’t even the one originally offering the controller or throwing the pillow at him, but Boombox already put his controller down on the floor, up for whoever to grab. Seeing Slingshot clearly ignore him, though it was his turn, Coil snatched the floor controller up, sticking out his tongue. Amazingly, Slingshot saw Shuriken say nothing about it.
Rather than having Shuriken’s feelings develop over an hour long romcom plot line, it happened in several layers, with the final, frosted icing layer smacking him in the head today. The icing basically read out “Congratulations! You’re in love with one of your friends!”, a horrible message for a cake. You’re supposed to eat your feelings away, not have them spelled out on a layered, imaginary cake. This particularly ordinary weekend, where he was invited by his brother to go play video games with them, and now he was seated on a hard wooden floor that was probably never properly mopped. What had even caused this change?
His butt was going numb and he was holding the pillow thrown at him by the guy he might have fallen in love with.
Shuriken stood up, arm brushing against Skateboard’s sitting next to him, and who didn’t look up from the bright screen. He moved a little further up, to where Boombox was laying on the couch.
“Move your feet,” Shuriken said, nudging one of Boombox’s legs.
Boombox complied, but by moving his sock covered foot up to Shuriken’s face. He shrieked, which went ignored by the others. His yelling became part of their norm when they hung out, all of them being aware of Shuriken’s dramatic ass.
“You’re so gross!” Shuriken yelled.
Boombox’s visor flashed a few exclamation marks and he finally curled his legs close to his chest, grinning. Shuriken plopped down next to him, stretching.
It was strange, the sudden realization Shuriken had, but looking back on it, he figured it was bound to happen. Over the past year, since Coil had joined Slingshot’s friend group, Shuriken had been invited to more and more of their gatherings. He didn’t necessarily mind, though Slingshot and Coil fought. A lot. Shuriken still couldn’t tell if their fights were a silly joke (like the ones they often had with Vinestaff), or if Slingshot was actually being malicious. Either way, Shuriken felt a pull toward the other green inphernal, and they became fast friends, doing everything together. Boombox was reliable, always being able to find the right tunes for whatever adventure that they had. It was to the point they hung out outside of the group hangouts, doing simple things together, like meeting up in the center of Crossroads to help Shuriken run errands, or to hit up the arcade when Boombox wanted to use the DDR machine.
It (not just the pillow) caught him by surprise. In a way, Boombox was the closest person to him, outside of his siblings. Shuriken trusted him and knew he was reliable, to either hit up to do something fun or to talk to if he had any problems.
A sharp poke made Shuriken open his eyes. Coil had also stood up, and was poking his leg with his fingers, tapping out a nonsensical pattern.
“Move your legs, I wanna sit too bro.”
“Sit on the floor! You were there for the last hour!” Shuriken retorted, glaring up at Coil for disrupting his flow of incoherent gay thoughts.
“Uh yeah, and now my ass hurts! Move!”
“Can’t you sit somewhere else?” Boombox asked, butting in.
“Why’d you let Shuri lay down? No fair! I live here, I should have authority over the couch.” Coil crossed his arms.
Shuriken stuck out his tongue. “Bleeehh, not my problem! Boombox was here first, and he let me on it, not you. Plus, this is Skateboard’s apartment, you just crash here!”
“Yeah whatever. You guys are gonna regret it later when I go beast mode.”
“Seriously? Beast mode?” Skateboard said, sounding unimpressed and not looking away from the television screen, where he was now fighting Slingshot’s character.
Shuriken still had no idea what ‘beast mode’ entailed of. He also didn’t really care, not intimidated by whatever it was. Coil scowled and walked away, and Shuriken’s expression softened as he looked up at Boombox.
His visor reflected back his large eyes, and Shuriken caught a glimpse of his expression, totally lovestruck.
God he was fucked.
—-
The problem with having a crush on Boombox was that he was a warm and joyous soul, a delight to be around. That was a good thing, a positive personality trait! Well, normally it was.
Shuriken loved that Boombox was such a positive person, congratulating him and his opponents when his team won phights and finding something nice to say to everyone when they lost. He was also a bit touchy, always offering bear hugs or holding out his hands for a fist bump or high five. It was not uncommon to see Boombox dap up Skateboard or gently punching Slingshot’s shoulder.
Boombox would also make sure to get to know others, finding their hobbies, what they liked to do, and who they liked to be around. Shuriken thought it was great they could spar together and he could demonstrate his invisibility tricks while Boombox shredded the arena with amazing beats, but there was a problem (besides being on opposite teams today, for one thing).
Boombox was like that to everyone. He would take music requests and ask for favorite genres from everyone, even Subspace and Hyperlaser, despite how prickly and cold they were talking to Playgrounders, and he would make an effort to play music they liked too sometimes. No matter how much dislike he got from the other phighters, he chose to look past their disdain. Boombox also gave out affection casually to everyone, which now slightly bothered Shuriken more than it should have, since he came to terms (accepting and hiding away) with his embarrassing crush.
Shuriken huffed as he watched Boombox high five Skateboard.
“Nice timing man! I can’t believe we pulled off that trick!”
That ‘trick’ was timing their ults, stunning Shuriken in place, forcing him to watch in horror as Boombox dove down on his music player and annihilated four fifths of his team, including him.
Banhammer approached the two inphernals celebrating and swung his arm around Boombox’s shoulders. “Hah! I admit our team did excellent today, guess those tunes weren’t too bad.”
“Thanks! You did great too!” Boombox cheerfully responded.
“Of course I did awesome! Momma’s gonna be proud of me!”
Shuriken looked away from the scene as more people approached Boombox, giving him more compliments and praise as the MVP of the day. At one point, he wanted to go over there too, but felt uncomfortable around the large group of inphernals. It was almost like he didn’t exist around them, forgotten. That was good for the games, when he could sneak up and score some kills, but lonely otherwise. Sometimes, he envied Boombox’s magnetic energy.
Slingshot looked curiously at Shuriken’s odd, sulking, behavior but decided not to address it. He was probably grumpy about their loss, he mused, and going over there would get him blamed (even though they got the same amount of kills).
Boombox came up to Shuriken, putting his arm around his shoulders. “Great job out there! You got me a few times!”
Shuriken seemed visibly happier, lighting up. “Maaaybee you just gotta work on your timing, we should totally practice together again sometime,” he said in a sing-song voice.
“Okay, bet!” Boombox’s LED eyes gave him a wink.
He knew that it would be impossible to have Boombox’s undivided attention all the time, but Shuriken definitely couldn’t deny how elated he felt the few moments it was on him.
—-
No matter how much they had in each of their lives, Vinestaff insisted they had to have a weekday dedicated to eating dinner together as a family. It was a tradition, just to make sure Slingshot wouldn’t over work himself, Shuriken wouldn’t sneak out every night, or Vinestaff wouldn’t get too absorbed in her gardening; they would all forget to eat for several days in a row.
Their conversations began somewhat normally, Slingshot asking about their days and talking new pastry recipes he was going to try in the future. Vinestaff mentioned updating the garden a bit with an extension, and while he loved his sister, Shuriken understood next to nothing of what she was saying and decided to ignore Vinestaff’s ongoing yapping about possible new fencing in favor of finishing his dinner early.
The conversation eventually died down a bit, and Slingshot asks, “Hey Shuri…are you and Boombox…secretly a thing?”
“HUH?” Shuriken splutters and drinks most of the water in his glass, hoping he wouldn’t choke. Or, better yet, he would choke and die, and never have to answer that question
Slingshot continues, “Yeah, you guys are constantly touchy, even more than Boombox is with everyone else, sharing inside jokes, AND hanging out without the rest of us. Coil pointed that out, and while I hate to agree with him, I was…curious.”
“Uhhh its nunya.” Shuriken said, thinking quickly.
“Nunya?” Vinestaff asks.
“Nun of ‘yas businesses!”
Slingshot rolled his eyes at Shuriken’s immaturity, partially expecting a not real answer and also partially expecting a ‘ur mom’ joke.
Ignoring the blush growing on his cheeks and ears, Shuriken tried to finish eating but he could feel their looks on him.
Luckily, Shuriken’s response told Slingshot everything he needed to know, and he didn’t press further.
“You know you can tell us anything, right?” Vinestaff gently said, trying to coax something out of him.
“Yeah…” Shuriken sighed dreamily.
It was basically confirmed for the two of them then. Vinestaff and Slingshot gave each other a knowing glance. Shuriken was not typically someone who “sighed dreamily,” and it was even worse when he also suggested a romance movie that night. Their brother was lovesick, fallen off into the deep end, and they would have to help him.
—-
“Hey look, I got two tickets to this EDM concert!”
Shuriken was lying on the couch when Slingshot waved the pieces of paper in his face.
“Uh cool? Why are you sharing this information with me?”
“Well I’m not going, I gotta manage the cafe that night! They’re for you and Boombox, he loves that kinda stuff.”
Shuriken sat up. “What? Why?”
“Can’t your brother just do something nice for you?”
Shuriken was suspicious. Why him, wouldn’t Skateboard be his first choice to give these to? Also, Slingshot owned the cafe. He could just take the day off or something.
He took the tickets anyways, pocketing them.
“Okay cool! I already told Boombox about it, he’s going to come stop by here before you guys go to it.”
—-
A week had passed, and today was the day of the concert. Shuriken had never been to one before, and had no idea what to expect. Both Slingshot and Vinestaff were working tonight, but allowed him to go, Vinestaff taking his shift. Now that he was thinking about it, Slingshot’s excuse was probably bullshit. He technically had to work tonight too!
He heard a knock at the door and hurried to open it.
“Hey dude!”
Boombox was wearing baggy black pants and a tight green tank top that matched his horns, which had glow in the dark powder pasted all over them. Over it was a loose netted white jacket of sorts (if it could even be called a jacket) and Boombox’s arms and horns were covered with colorful bracelets and beads.
“Is that typical concert attire?” Shuriken asked confused. He was wearing camouflage cargo pants and an oversized black shirt with some stupid meme on it.
“Concert? It’s an EDM rave!”
“I’ve never been to a concert or a rave before. Same thing to me.”
The tickets made a little more sense now. No wonder it only had a location, no real other details. Kind of shady, but that was on Shuriken for not questioning the tickets.
“Don’t worry, I’ve been to a bunch, it’s super fun!”
“Bet!”
“Okay, now, you’re wearing cargo pants, help me sneak some of these flasks in your pockets?”
—-
The bass pounded in the air, vibrating the floors of the mysterious warehouse they were in. The rainbow strobe lights flashed to the beat of the music and the air lingered with the smell of artificial flavorings and weed.
Shuriken was suprised at the amount of nightlife existing in Playground, he really thought they were at the wrong place when Boombox pulled them to the backdoor of a giant warehouse building, surrounded by more warehouses looking the exact same. The inphernal at the door waved at Boombox, clearly recognizing him when they took the tickets Shuriken handed over.
Inside, the floor felt slightly sticky. Shuriken could feel it each time he lifted up his shoes, and tried to ignore the gross feeling.
Boombox grabs his arm and they both went closer to the small stage against the far wall of the room. A mass of people were already there and several waved or nodded at Boombox. Shuriken got a few curious stares. He noticed he was dressed slightly differently from everyone else, his outfit a bit less colorful, and most others wearing a lot less, tighter, or a combination of those two clothes, but shook off his growing insecurities at their stares.
Boombox took a small hip flask out of a hidden pocket in his pants before taking a massive swing.
“Want some? This one’s Malibu!”
Shuriken gratefully took the container Boombox handed him, and chugged the rest of it, cheap coconut vodka slightly burning his throat.
“Hey!”
“Chill man, you made me hide more in my outfit. I have, what, three more?” Shuriken responded.
“Four.”
Shuriken smiles at Boombox’s correction. The song the DJ was playing ended and a new one began. The lights around them changed into cooler tones and bounced around in a new pattern.
“Let’s dance!” Boombox shouts over the music.
—-
Several hours had passed. At least Shuriken thought so. The music was still blasting, more background noise than anything else at this point. Shuriken could feel his head spinning, due to a combination of alcohol consumed and weed smoked. He didn’t know Boombox was also hiding a blunt in his outfit, but surprise! It was offered to him earlier, when they both were sitting along a wall.
Shuriken was still sitting along the wall, extremely buzzed and too dizzy to stand up and interact with the other raving inphernals. Boombox was somewhat close, after Shuriken reassured him that he was fine and insisted he didn’t need to be watched, decided to trade bracelets with others. Boombox still kept an eye on him though. Just in case.
“Hey honey, you alright?”
An inphernal dressed in bright pink approached Shuriken, waving her glittery fan. Her horns were covered in the same type of glitter, making her shine in the flashing lights around them.
“Uhhghhmn yeah, I’m fine.”
She gave him a concerned look. “Are you sure dear?”
Behind her, Shuriken could see Boombox chatting with another man, with giant spiraling horns. Suddenly, the other guy embraced Boombox and tried to tilt his head upwards for a kiss. Boombox grew flustered and almost immediately pushing him away. The other man seemed to apologize and then they continued talking.
It was all too much for Shuriken.
“Excuse me…” he muttered as a wave of blood flowed up to his cheeks. Shuriken felt like he was burning up, extremely sick.
The glittery woman shot him another concerned glance as he quickly stood up from his spot on the floor and ran to a trashcan nearby.
He hurled with a loud gagging noise, most of his dinner and the alcohol he drank earlier ending up in a sad excuse for a garbage bin.
“Shuriken!”
The clacking of shoes on the cement floor approached him, Boombox was running over. He could feel a warm hand pressed against his back, slowly rubbing small circles. As his arm moved, the few remaining bracelets kept moving around and jingling.
“Are you okay?”
Shuriken turned up to look at him. Boombox’s expression was full of concern, and he used his other hand to gently cup Shuriken’s face. He could feel all the calluses on Boombox’s hand and everything, all of a sudden, came into too much focus. Boombox was too close to him, probably able to see exactly how disgusting his face was post-barfing. Without responding to his question, Shuriken immediately swiveled his head down again and puked his guts out.
—-
Despite Shuriken’s protests that he was fine, Boombox insisted they leave. While walking through Playground, Shuriken shivered at the night air chill.
“I don’t understand how you live here,” he commented, looking at all the crowded city apartments and their not-so-clean surroundings. “I guess Crossroads is kinda crowded, but it’s so much worse here.”
Boombox looks up. The sky is clear tonight, fully lacking any clouds. The only thing covering the twinkling stars is the fog and light pollution from the buildings around them.
“It’s my home, everything is familiar around here.”
“Yeah, I guess I could say I felt that way about Thieves den. Kinda. It was filled with dangerous plants ‘n stuff but you could see the stars so clearly.”
“I never really went stargazing. I don’t think I can miss what I never had.”
“Hm.” Shuriken paused before saying anything else, both of them enjoying the quiet, with only the sound of their shoes on the cement as they walked. “I’m sorry for making us leave early, I could have just went home by myself.”
Boombox laughed. “Don’t be silly, I want you to get home safe. Playground can be dangerous.” He got quiet for a moment.
“I care about you, after all, and I don’t mind leaving for you.”
The rest of their walk was filled with silence. Shuriken didn’t know what else to say, suddenly feeling extremely sober. He was embarrassed, due to throwing up in front of his friend, and then needing to be walked home, but moreover, at how Boombox immediately went over to make sure he was okay. “For you,” kept echoing in his head. He wanted to cry about how much Boombox cared about him, how he was toying with his feelings, especially since he was just like that…with everyone. It probably wasn’t anything unique to him right? Shuriken felt like he didn’t deserve someone so caring, someone who thought so much about him.
—-
It was another weekday, one where Slingshot insisted for another family dinner. Well it was family, with the addition of Boombox. He helped Vinestaff close the cafe, and in return, she had offered for him to join in on their dinner together.
Boombox fit right in, chiming in with silly jokes or adding his opinion on Slingshot’s recent menu incorporations.
He perfectly fit into Shuriken’s family, and though Shuriken found it annoying that Vinestaff and Slingshot were acting a lot nicer with the pair (strange…) and giving them special treatment (Vinestaff didn’t even say anything when Shuriken told her about the plant he accidentally killed today! definitely weird!), Shuriken definitely didn’t mind the thought of Boombox joining them for more dinners. He just felt like another part of his home.
—-
The sun was going to set soon. After dinner, Vinestaff also volunteered to clear the table, and Slingshot decided to (willingly!) do the dishes. Extra weird. Shuriken had invited Boombox to their apartment roof, just to hang out and talk before he left.
It was cloudy, but otherwise perfect. The sky was a beautiful orange, starting to fade into hints of red. The edges of the sky were still blue, but streaked with bits of yellow and purple from the approaching night.
It was beautiful. Boombox was beautiful, with the rays of the dying sun casting a glow on his face, illuminating his green horns to stand out.
“Hey Boombox, I gotta tell you something,” Shuriken finally said. He didn’t mean to actually say anything, but something just made him blurt it out. Maybe it was the beautiful landscape, knowing Shuriken wouldn’t have any better chances to confess.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
Shuriken could feel his face burn up. He couldn’t do this anymore.
“Ahah, nothing, nevermind!” He waved his hands around in the air, hoping Boombox would buy his pathetic lie.
Boombox stared at him for a moment. “You can tell me anything, I’m here for you.”
His visor was slipping down a little bit. Shuriken made eye contact with his actual eyes, filled with much more depth and emotion than the LED visor typically covering them.
That made Shuriken cave. With a sigh, he finally said, “I like you.”
“Huh?”
“Not like a friend or whatever, but romantically.”
Boombox didn’t say anything. Shuriken continued.
“I’m really bad with my feelings, so it took me a while to come to terms with it, but I think I have a big fat crush on you. I’m drawn to how caring and kind you are, and how you’re so friendly to everyone, even Subspace.”
Shuriken internally kicked himself. Way to go, bringing up an evil Blackrockian scientist in the middle of his love confession.
“Anyways, I would understand if you think I’m weird and don’t want to be friends anymore. I’m sorry.”
Shuriken looked down at the floor. He was mentally bracing for a rejection, waiting to see how Boombox would politely decline his pathetic excuse of a love confession and tell Slingshot he never wanted Shuriken near their friend group again. He quickly blinked a few times, hoping no tears would fall.
“…I like you too, ya know.”
“Huh?” That was not the response Shuriken was expecting. Out of all the possible things he thought Boombox could say, that was not one of them, throwing him for a loop.
“Shuriken, you’re one of my favorite inphernals to be around. You’re funny and cute, and I’ve been flirting with you for months.”
“WHAT. I thought you were just being nice to me like how you are to everyone else?”
Boombox shook his head. “Nope. I guess one flaw of yours is that you’re super dense?”
“So how long have you liked me?”
“Since we met! I had to beg Sling to invite you over more often.”
“I can’t believe it. You had a crush on me the whole time? I just realized my feelings a few weeks ago!”
Boombox laughed. As his laugh died down, they made eye contact, Shuriken staring deep into the void of Boombox’s eyes.
They moved closer to each other, and Boombox cupped Shuriken’s warm, red cheek in his hand. Their lips slowly met as the sun continued to set behind them.
No fireworks went off in the background. There wasn’t anything that exploded in their minds. Shuriken thought it just felt…right, to have their lips connect and to have their hands on each other. Breaking their kiss and leaning against Boombox’s warm body, Shuriken let out a soft smile.
“I can’t believe it took me this long to confess, I was seriously about to chicken out and wait.”
Boombox kissed Shuriken’s forehead. “I’m glad it happened, I wouldn’t have ever said anything.”
Shuriken moved himself closer, glad for the warmth and body heat. He felt so joyous, though also slightly tired; he just wanted to curl up with Boombox and take a nap.
Neither of the two new lovebirds noticed, but Vinestaff and Slingshot were seated by the door leading to the apartment rooftop, peeking through the crack of the door that wasn’t fully closed. They quietly high-fived, seeing the two green inphernals curled up together in a tight embrace, watching the sun finish setting in each other’s arms.