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The house was pitch black, and the doorknob rattling was much louder than it needed to be as Kayn struggled with the keys.
“Do you need light?” Ezreal asked, already pulling out his phone.
“No, I just need this stupid door to…” the knob turns, and Kayn lets out a cheerful yell as he pushes the door open, pulling the keys out of the lock. “Yeah! Got it!”
“Shh!” Ez winces. It was late, the concert they'd been at had gone over by almost a full hour. Yone would have their heads if they disturbed his beauty sleep.
Kayn scoffed, pushing the door open and walking inside. “You worry too much, come on.”
The pair move through the house quietly (well, as quietly as Kayn’s Docs and Ez’s squeaky sneakers allow), managing to avoid the wrath of a certain manager for staying out so late, and arrive at the end of their hallway in the Heartsteel house, Ez’s room on the left, and Kayn's on the right.
Ezreal has his door open in a second, flipping on the light and letting it spill into the hallway. “Oh, hang on.” Kayn pauses, his hand already reaching for his door, and looks at Ez, who's digging through the shopping bag from the mall earlier in the day. He produces a small keychain, a red diamond with black chains overlaying the color, and a letter “P” in sharp lines on top, and holds it out, grinning. “This is for you!”
Kayn takes the chain, staring at the letter. “Are you serious? Where did you find this?”
“It was the last one at Hot Topic, in the back section, the clearance area!” Ez is practically glowing, “You were looking at the band shirts and I snuck it into my pile of stuff.”
“You dork,” Kayn smirks, grabbing Ez as the smaller boy squeaks, and putting him into a faux headlock, ruffling his green hair with his free hand.
“Stop, stop, stop!” Ezreal protests, laughing and squirming in Kayn’s grip, dropping his shopping bag as the two wrestle a little, banging into the wall as Kayn thoroughly messes up his hair before releasing him. The two step back from each other, glowing, both smiling, a light blush of embarrassment dusting Ez's cheeks while Kayn looks mischievous, like he's ready to resume the fight at any time.
Neither of them makes a move as time seems to stand still, before the moment is interrupted by Kayn suppressing, or trying to suppress, a large yawn. Ez blinks, giggling a little. “Tired?”
“Maybe.”
“We should probably sleep then…”
Kayn stares at Ez, “...yeah.”
Silence falls between them.
“...you wanna like, cuddle?” Kayn breaks the moment again.
They'd only been dating for a few days, the concert having been something they'd planned to go together as friends, but had turned into an entire day, a mall trip, dinner and boba, and then the actual show, where Kayn had dove aggressively into the mosh pit while Ez stood off to the side, yelling and singing along, dancing with a few random concert-goers and holding their things.
But that didn't stop Ez’s eyes from widening, his face turning bright pink as he opens his mouth, and finding himself unable to utter a single word. He just nods, beaming at his partner.
Kayn rolls his eyes and points to the bag on the floor. “Put that away, and then come over, I'm gonna make sure my shit’s kind of organized.” And with that, he turns, opens his door, and walks into the pitch black room, letting the door fall shut behind him.
Ez presses his lips together in a smile, and quickly bends down, grabbing the bag and turning to go into his own room, tossing it onto the bed and doing a small happy dance. His boyfriend! Asked him to cuddle! He looks at his outfit, still dressed up to go out, and closes the door behind him before stripping out of the jeans and T-shirt (and all of the accessories). What could he wear for cuddling? It had to be cute, but not too cute, but not too warm…Kayn was always so hot, in more ways than one , Ez thought while pawing through a drawer, pulling out a pair of plaid pajama pants and an old t-shirt from another concert they'd gone to the summer before, the front reading “Glass Animals” and the back having a large galaxy printed on it next to the words “I LOVE YOU SO F**KING MUCH”.
Ezreal already knew he was in love with the other, he'd fallen head over heels when Kayn had kissed him the first time in an airport after dropping him off for a trip back home, but saying it? It hadn't happened yet. He was terrified of the reaction. What if it was too soon? What if his feelings were too much? He'd always felt so strongly, crying became sobbing, happiness was huge grins and frantic stims, anger was explosive, and love…it was always consuming, bordering on obsessive. It'd gotten him hurt before, sending gushy paragraphs in the morning and night to a previous partner, when that partner had lashed into him, telling him he didn't need to, that it was unnecessary, that it was annoying . He'd never forgotten that, and bottled everything up from then on, pushing emotions down, trying to show them less, trying to be less.
But at the end of it all, he was Ezreal. He was loud when he was excited and shy when he liked someone and got flustered when he was embarrassed and cried at romance movies, and Kayn hadn't even blinked at any of it. None of the band had when he'd been messy. So…he'd started opening up. More days moping around the house when he got sad, letting them know when he was down, and more days indulging in animes and 80s bands. More random memes sent through TikTok or Instagram, little “this made me think of you” moments every day for those he cared for. He started trusting them since living here, and didn't want to hide anything, bad or good.
But a love confession?
He wasn't really ready for that one yet. He wasn't ready to start sending paragraphs. He wasn't ready to tell someone how he saw the world in their eyes, or thought they put the stars themselves in the sky. He wasn't ready to get hurt again.
He just hoped Kayn could read the shirt.
He glanced around the room again, thinking if he needed anything else. Plushie? No, Kayn would be a life-size one. Socks? Too warm. Blankets? Again, too warm. Pillow? Kayn’s chest would be the pillow. Ez looked in the mirror, and then took a deep breath and walked out of his room, closing the door and hitting the light behind him, even leaving his phone on the dresser since they didn't have any obligations the next day.
He knocked hesitantly on Kayn's door.
Silence.
Nothing.
Ez beat back the voice in his head telling him to just turn around and go back to his room. Kayn offered this, he wanted to, so Ezreal knocked again.
“I'm not getting up.” The muffled voice came from behind the door.
The green haired boy swallowed his nerves and let himself into the room. It was still dark, but Kayn had turned on the strip lights hung on the edges of the ceiling to a low purple, the only other light in the room emanating from his phone as he laid in bed, scrolling some social media. He'd also changed into a pair of black basketball shorts, and…
Kayn looks up, and grins. “Oh shit, we match.” He was wearing the same Glass Animals shirt, they'd each gotten one, and Ezreal flushed.
“I just figured it was comfy.” He said, smiling.
“It is. You gonna stand in the doorway all night or…” Kayn raises an eyebrow, that same mischievous look on his face again.
“Oh! Right.” Ez shuts the door behind him, and then walks over to the bed and crawls in, settling in as Kayn wraps an arm around him and pulls him close, tossing his phone to the side. Ezreal snuggles into his partner, looking up at him and smiling.
“What?”
“Nothing!” Ez squeaks, his head dropping onto Kayn’s chest, one arm tucked awkwardly between them, the other resting across his body, while Kayn had wrapped one arm around him. His other hand reached up and took Ez’s, leaving them settled together. “Today was fun.”
“Yeah, pretty good day.” Kayn says, shrugging lightly, “I didn't get punched in the face in the pit, and I had to listen to some dork yap the whole time about some devil anime, but yeah, it was fun.” He laughs as Ez’s face scrunched up. “Where did you say he worked again? Some burger place?”
“MgRonald's! It has to be a rip off because they can't use the actual name or something.” Ez closes his eyes, yawning. He shifts, throwing one leg over Kayn's, their feet connecting, and Kayn yelps.
“WHAT THE FUCK.” Kayn shifts away from Ez immediately, the other sitting up and pulling away.
“What? I'm sorry! Did I hurt you or something?”
“No, dude, why are your feet so fucking cold??” Kayn laughs, shaking his head.
Ezreal turns red, “Um, I dunno! Bad circulation?” It wasn't entirely a lie, he did get randomly cold, and his hands and feet always felt ten degrees colder than the rest of his body.
“Well, keep them away from me, you freak.” Kayn's tone was light-hearted and playful as he pulled Ez back towards him, reassuming the cuddling position they were in before.
He knew he shouldn't, but Ezreal had a terrible idea. He reached out with one foot, and grabbed Kayn’s toes with his own.
“STOP!!” Kayn squishes Ez in his arms, shaking his foot away, and Ez giggles, repeating it.
The two fight like this for awhile, Kayn throwing out insults jokingly and Ez continuously gripping Kayn's feet with his own, the whole time staying close to each other, laughing. Eventually, Kayn retaliates, lifting his leg and pinning Ez’s legs to the bed.
“I win.”
Ez just looks up at him, face flushed, beaming. He was so in love that it hurt, he could feel his heart ready to explode, and the words were just out of reach, barely on the tip of his tongue, but there was no way it could happen yet.
“What?”
“You're cute.”
Kayn rolls his eyes. “I think that's you, actually.” He leans down, pulling Ezreal further up at the same time and kisses him. “Are you done with the foot shit now?”
“Maybe…” Ez keeps staring at Kayn, smiling, his eyes sparkling with happiness.
“You'd better be, or else. It's time to sleep.” Kayn threatens, but there's no malice in his tone, only teasing.
“Okayyy.” Pouting a little, Ez settles back into his place on Kayn's chest, and closes his eyes.
“Goodnight, idiot.”
“Night, Kayn.”
The pair drift off into sleep.
Maybe he'd tell Kayn tomorrow.