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Chenle knew that Mark was a sucker from the start, and definitely not prepared to take him in at all. For one, he didn’t even ask the basic questions when he first met hybrid Chenle! It took him like two weeks to ask Chenle how old he was! And that actually annoyed Chenle so much, since Mark was treating him like a baby when they’re only two years apart.
But Chenle doesn’t think about their early days anymore, choosing to focus on the present. Now he has a boyfriend, and their early hardships and antics are long gone, which Chenle is glad about. He does miss being a menace, but having Mark to himself is even better.
“Mark,” Chenle whines as he kneads Mark’s cheeks. It’s kind of like making biscuits, but the human version.
“Yes?”
“I love you.”
Mark’s lips spread into a small smile. “I love you too.”
‘I love you’ has started to come easier for Mark, despite the iffy beginnings with the phrase. The words have always come easy for Chenle—well—not always, but he knew when he loved Mark, and he wasn’t afraid to express it once he knew. If Mark reacted badly, he’d just transform into a cat and run away. He was something like a stray for a long time—Chenle knows how to survive despite how his perceived naivety may cause him to look.
“Do you love me enough to bring me to the fish market again?”
Mark sighs. “There was a catch. There’s always a catch.”
Chenle pouts, standing up and throwing on a sweater.
“Fine,” Chenle runs a hand through his hair, making it look a bit more presentable. “I can go by myself.”
Chenle peeks back at Mark, just to see if it gets the man moving.
“Whatever,” Chenle sighs. Mark just shrugs his shoulders. “I’ll be back with a nice fish, and I won’t give you any.”
Chenle sulks as he leaves the room, wishing that Mark would come with him. He doesn’t even really want a fish right now—just because he’s a cat doesn’t mean he wants fish every day. They’ve already been to the market three times this week; he has more than enough fish, but he likes spending time with Mark doing errands. Yes, they bicker quite a bit, but it’s all fun on Chenle’s end. It’s fun.
Chenle grabs a shopping bag and leaves the apartment, still sulking despite some of the neighbors loitering in the hallway giving him some treats and chin scratches. Those things still taste and feel good, even in his hybrid form. Sometimes Mark thinks that he’s weird for eating cat food when he’s not in his cat form, but there really isn’t much of a difference. Whatever his body can tolerate in one form can be tolerated in the other, and his taste buds don’t change either.
He makes his way down the street, the usual strays coming up to him and sniffing his legs, recognizing him as the cat that drags food out from his apartment for them sometimes.
He makes it to the market, deciding to go to the normal grocery store instead of the fish market. He heads over to the fish section and carefully observes what they have for the day. There’s nothing that he’s craving, so instead he peruses the aisles aimlessly, looking to see if there’s anything that catches his attention.
Chenle finds himself in the pet section, playing around with the bell collars. He used to have to wear one at his old home. He actually liked the lady who owned him. She was old, and picked Chenle up off the street one her way home from the community center—she loved playing bingo. She was ecstatic when she found out that he was a hybrid, telling him that he reminded her of her grandson who moved overseas. She couldn’t see well, so he kept the bell collar on so that when he was in cat form, she could hear him coming.
When she got too old to live independently anymore, her family put her in a retirement home, leaving Chenle by himself again.
He still thinks about the lady sometimes. She’s probably passed on now, but he wishes that he would’ve gotten to see her one last time. She was great.
“I felt bad.”
Chenle jumps, and when he looks next to him, he’s met by Mark standing there.
“Did you follow me?” Chenle asks. He said that he was going to the fish market—and he’s not at the fish market.
“You share your location with me.”
Oh yeah, Chenle does.
“No fish?” Mark asks.
“I don’t want fish,” Chenle says. “I just wanted us to go out.”
Chenle doesn’t always mean to guilt Mark, it’s just something that comes naturally due to his blunt and honest nature. When Mark asks him a question, he answers it truthfully, because that’s what he’s supposed to do. Yes, Chenle knows all about human social cues and norms, but just because he knows them, doesn’t mean that he feels the need to follow them. It may be better to omit information if it may make the other person feel bad, but Chenle promises that it’s not malicious.
It’s just transparency.
“I’m sorry,” Mark apologizes. “But you also could’ve said that. We can go out whenever you feel like it, it’s not like we do much else.”
“I will next time.” Chenle chooses to agree. “But the fish market is my love language, remember that, okay?”
“Never heard of that one before.” Of course he hasn’t; humans are very close minded. Mark chuckles. “But I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Stay still,” Chenle scolds as he runs the brush through Mark’s hair. “Why is it so tangled?”
“Didn’t brush it out after the pool.”
Chenle groans, he hates those things. Last night Mark went to a pool party that one of his friends from college threw, and he tried to get Chenle to come, but once again, he hates those things. He won’t even get into a bathtub, so why would he get into a huge one full of people? He doesn’t know where they’ve been, and he’s supposed to soak in a chemical filled cesspool with them?
“If you were gonna go then why would you be so careless?” Chenle continues to run the brush through a stubborn knot. “Going to bed with wet hair when you know that you move around in your sleep a lot! It’s all tangled!”
“Because I knew that you’d take care of it for me.”
Chenle lightly smacks Mark in the forehead with the brush. He swears, he might be doing a bit too much for this guy. He doesn’t really have any point of reference for what is considered spoiling someone in a relationship, mainly because his only hybrid friend in a relationship, and hybrid friend in general, is Jaemin who acts even worse than he does. Chenle doesn’t even think that Jisung pees by himself. Jaemin seems like the type to wanna hold his dick while he does it.
Ew, that’s actually kind of gross to think about.
“I pamper you too much,” Chenle sighs as he places the brush to the side, finally finishing up Mark’s hair. He stands up, about to leave so that Mark can finish up his business.
“Are you sure you don’t wanna try just one time?” Mark asks.
“Try what?” Chenle spins back around, one hand still on the doorknob.
“The bath.”
“No.”
“Please?”
“No.”
“Not for me?” Mark gives Chenle his best kicked kitty cat eyes.
Chenle huffs—he hates when Mark does that! Chenle is a weak cat! And Mark does it so well that Chenle’s convinced he must be like, at least, one eighth cat hybrid or something!
“The bath is tiny,” Chenle tries to argue, despite already unzipping his hoodie.
“There’s plenty of room on top of me.”
“Dirty dog.”
“I thought you liked dogs.”
“Not when they’re dirty.”
“So why are you naked?”
Chenle grabs a washcloth and chucks it at Mark’s face.
“Don’t be mean.”
Chenle carefully steps into the tub, and lowers himself into Mark’s lap. His boyfriend wraps his arms around his waist, and moves his head to rest on his shoulder.
“Don’t do that, you’re gonna make me horny,” Mark scolds.
“Do what!” Chenle didn’t even do anything yet.
“You’re purring.”
“You know I can’t control that!” Chenle doesn’t know how Mark never fails to get all hot and bothered whenever he purrs. He just does it whenever he’s happy or comfortable or feels good.
Yes, that includes during sex, but that’s just a few out of the many occasions that he does it.
“Is this a kink or something?” Chenle sighs. “We should do research, or maybe I can ask Jaemin if Jisung feels the same way.”
“No, please don’t.”
“Why? Embarrassed?” Chenle has successfully been able to leverage every friend that he’s met through Mark against him. Donghyuck and Jaemin always help him tease Mark, just because they’re equally as mischievous as him. Jisung takes Jaemin’s side on everything, which means that he takes Chenle’s side. And Renjun takes Chenle’s side on everything, solely because he thinks that he’s cute.
“Very.” Mark answers.
Chenle rests his head in the crook of Mark’s neck and purrs again, this time on purpose.
“Lele,” Mark groans.
Chenle just smiles, finally realizing that maybe the bathtub isn’t an enemy.
“Can we try something?” Mark asks.
“What?” Chenle asks, placing his iPad to the side.
“I saw this post online, and it was like ‘Make sure to stretch your hybrids’, so I think that we need to stretch you,” Mark explains, clearing off the bed.
Chenle looks at him skeptically. Chenle is literally the hybrid in this situation, and he’s never heard of anything like that. Maybe this is some new modern science he hasn’t heard of?
“Okay!” Mark cracks his knuckles and he kneels on the bed. “Can you spread your legs apart?”
“Okay…” Chenle follows his instructions. Mark then grabs the back of one of his knees and leans forward, pushing it all the way to his chest with little resistance.
“Ah, good,” Mark says before releasing his leg. “Next one.”
Chenle has an interesting feeling about this “stretching” exercise, but Mark seems so innocently enthusiastic, and he doesn’t want to rain on his parade. So he allows Mark to grab his other leg, bringing it to his chest again and repeating the process.
“Wow, you’re flexible,” Mark praises. “Okay, then it says that I should try both at once.”
Okay, so this is definitely what Chenle thinks that it is. He considers telling Mark right now, but it’ll be much more satisfying once they’re in the position. Mark will get much more flustered.
Chenle allows Mark to position himself in between his legs, and then grab the backs of his knees, pushing them all the way to his chest and holding them there.
“Mark,” Chenle finally says, grabbing Mark’s wrist to hold them in place.
“Yeah?” He answers, wide eyes looking as innocent as ever.
“That video you saw, did it ever say what makes these stretches specifically for hybrids?”
“Uh, no.”
“Oh.” Chenle nods. “Take a second to look at the position that we’re in.”
Mark’s face goes red the second that he realizes.
“Do you follow fetish pages or something? Chenle asks, and this sends Mark into a frenzy.
“No! Not at all! I respect you and I would never look at content like that! It just came up on my timeline and I thought–”
Chenle kind of wants Mark to continue on his little tirade, curious to see where it’ll go, but he does feel kind of bad for messing with him. He was just being facetious.
“Relax, I’m joking.” Chenle places his over Mark’s mouth to physically shut him up. “But you’re so gullible!”
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Mark’s muffled voice still comes through Chenle’s hand.
“It’s okay! Shut up!” Chenle shouts, his entire body wracked by laughter now. “Shut up! It’s okay! I don’t think you have a hybrid fetish, I actually think that I’m just so cute, and cool, and sexy, that I made you fall in love with me the natural way!”
Messing with Mark is always so funny.
“Why don’t you turn into a cat as much anymore?” Mark randomly asks one day.
“What? Am I too annoying as a human?”
Mark groans loudly. “I did not say that.”
“I feel like you are.” Of all of the activities that Chenle has engaged in since he’s gotten here, his favorite has to be antagonizing Mark for literally no reason. It’s always so fun to see him scramble to defend himself, especially when looking for rationale where there isn’t one.
“Which form do you like better?” Chenle asks.
“Human.”
“Why? ‘Cause I’m so annoying as a cat, huh?”
“I did not say–”
“Is it ‘cause you only like me for my body?”
“Chenle, that’s not–”
“You must have a hybrid fetish!”
“Chenle no!” Mark shouts, finally having enough. “No! No! No! I like your human form better, because there’s so much more of you to love. And we can talk. And I can hug you and kiss you.”
Aww…Chenle feels bad now.
“I’m sorry for antagonizing you.” Chenle rolls over into Mark’s side, cuddling up to him as if he didn’t just try to start an argument with him. Mark groans in obvious faux annoyance, still wrapping his arm around Chenle’s shoulders.
“Then stop doing it.”
And Chenle genuinely takes a moment to consider it, before coming to the decision of,
“No.”
“Why not?”
“It’s our thing.”
“It doesn’t have to be our thing,” Mark sighs.
“But it does, though,” Chenle responds. He loves to antagonize Mark—it’s one of the most fun activities on the planet! He’s a very reactionary and animated person, so his responses never fail to entertain Chenle. Whether it’s him stammering over his words, or just getting flustered. Arguing back is also fun.
“We have a lot of things already,” Mark argues stubbornly. “We have the fish market, we have you purring all the time, we have whipped cream, we have…”
Mark drones on about all of the “better” things that they have, which Chenle begins to tune out.
“Chenle, what are you doing?” Mark asks, a wary expression on his face.
Chenle smiles coyly. “What are you talking about? I’m just laying here.”
Mark’s eyebrows furrow as his eyes shoot up to Chenle’s hair. “Your ears. You have airplane ears. What are you about to do?”
“Hm?” Chenle hums.
“Your ears…” Mark looks excessively worried, which honestly wants to make Chenle double over with laughter.
“Mark, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Chenle says, nuzzling his face into Mark’s neck. He feels Mark carefully start to run his fingers through his hair, making Chenle purr.
“See, this is our thing,” Mark says softly. “You don’t have to antagonize me.”
Chenle looks up at Mark and smiles. “Yeah.”
And then that’s when Chenle lunges forward and bites Mark’s ear.
“I knew it!”
Chenle loves going to Donghyuck and Renjun’s place. It’s so cozy and cute there. And they always have good snacks!
“Chenle!” Donghyuck snatches Chenle from Mark’s arm, cuddling the cat close to his chest. He can’t really speak right now, so he nuzzles his face into Donghyuck’s neck.
“Let me see him!” Renjun runs over, stealing Chenle from Donghyuck’s arms. “Hi, kitty,” he coos as he scratches Chenle’s chin.
No wonder he loves coming here.
“We’ll show you the dog,” Renjun says. “He’s very gentle and sweet—he shouldn’t hurt you.”
They take him to their bedroom, and sure enough, there’s a white samoyed curled up on their bed. Renjun gently places Chenle on the edge of the bed, and the cat excitedly runs over to the dog.
Chenle sniffs the dog, who seems to be sleeping, and judging by its scent, this dog is a hybrid. He then lifts his paw, nudging the dog’s face to try and wake it up. Sure enough, the dog’s eyes flicker open. Chenle’s never tried communicating with a dog before, but now’s his time to try.
“Hi, dog.” The dog begins to smell alarmed, so Chenle does something that he’s gotten used to doing as a human, which is resting his hand (in this case, paw) on the dog for comfort. It’s probably less reassuring in cat form, but hopefully the dog gets the point.
“Hello?” Wow! Seems like dogs and cats can communicate!
“Let’s be human,” Chenle suggests. Despite his revelation that they can communicate, he feels like it’ll be way easier as humans.
“I’m scared.”
Poor doggy.
“They are very nice,” Chenle reassures. “Please.”
“Okay…”
Chenle shifts back into his human form, and shortly after, the samoyed shifts into his.
“You’re so cute as a person!” Chenle dotes, pinching the dog’s cheek. “What’s your name?”
“Jeno…” The dog’s ears sit flat on his head, like he’s sad. No worries, because Chenle will cheer him up in no time!
“I’m Chenle!” He then turns around and begins to point. “That’s Renjun, that’s Donghyuck, and that’s my boyfriend, Mark!”
Jeno just weakly waves at the rest of them.
Looks like he’s still kind of wary—maybe he needs some more time alone.
Well, Chenle did his job!
“You guys should give him some more space,” Chenle says as they exit the bedroom. “I think that he’ll talk more when he’s ready. And if he goes into his dog form and doesn’t wanna speak, just call me so that I can talk to him.”
“Thank you again.” Renjun hands Mark a tube of Churu. “For the detective.”
Chenle gasps, trying to grab the tube from Mark. “Give it to me! Please! Please! Please!”
“Not now.” Mark throws the treat into his bag and zips it up.
“Why not? I’m a grown man! I can decide when I wanna eat a snack!”
“But you’re still a cat,” Mark sighs as they walk out the building. “A cat who sometimes doesn’t know what’s best for himself.”
“Hey!” Chenle knows what’s best for himself. “Please, Mark.”
“Nope. Not yet.”
Chenle whines, tugging on Mark’s bag as they walk, but he keeps an iron grip on it.
“Why are you doing this to me?” Chenle whines. “Do you hate me? You hate me!” There’s no worse torture than withholding a Churu from a cat.
“You can have some after dinner, baby. You never wanna eat real food after you have a Churu.”
Mark knows him so well, and sometimes Chenle wishes that he didn’t.
“We’ll go get food, my treat, and then later you can have the Churu.”
Chenle groans. “Technically every meal is your treat—I don’t have a job.”
“And you don’t need one.” Mark pinches Chenle’s cheek. “You’re meant to be my little lap cat forever.”
Despite already knowing that, Chenle sighs in relief. It’s uncommon for hybrids to have jobs anyway due to humane laws. It’s unfair for normal humans to breed and genetically modify a subgroup to be human-like companions, and then force them to work. It would be like creating jobs for your normal domesticated cat to work—it just isn’t fair. Some hybrids choose to have jobs, but the vast majority don’t. Most places don’t even want to hire them, anyway.
“Do you want a burrito?” Mark asks. “There’s a good place near here.”
“Yeah!” Burritos satisfy a primal need in Chenle. Biting through the nice, warm, tortilla reminds him of the sensation of biting through flesh, not that he’s ever done that, of course…
Mark drags them into a restaurant and orders their food, before sitting down.
Chenle just has to finish this burrito, and then he can finally have his Churu.
“Woah, woah, slow down!” Mark grabs Chenle’s wrist, trying to stop him from gobbling down the burrito in about three bites. Of course, Chenle ignores him, just wanting his treat.
“Can I have it now?” Chenle’s mouth is stuffed as he tries to swallow the rest of the food.
“When we get home.” Mark isn’t even done eating, but he packs up his food, immediately grabbing Chenle’s arms and pulling him to stand up.
Well, the faster they get home, the faster he gets the treat!
Mark holds his hand as they walk, which isn’t uncommon, as Chenle tends to get a little distracted sometimes and wander off with the street cats.
“Are you feeling okay?” Mark asks.
And suddenly, Chenle’s stomach starts to hurt.
“No,” he groans, leaning into Mark’s side.
Mark sighs, rubbing Chenle’s stomach as if he expected this. “You shouldn’t have eaten so fast.”
Yeah, Chenle regrets that now.
“Just come here, we’re almost home anyway.” Mark wraps his arms around Chenle’s torso and picks him up. “Please don’t vomit on me.”
Chenle decides to make it easier for Mark and shifts into his cat form, something he usually doesn’t do in public.
“Do you feel like you need to throw up?”
Chenle meows once, which has become his way of saying ‘Yes’ to Mark as a cat.
“Oh god…” Mark starts to sprint towards their building, even running up the stairs instead of waiting for the elevator. They rush inside of the bathroom, and Chenle quickly shifts back into his hybrid form before emptying his guts into the toilet. It’s a lot less painful to throw up as a human, because as a cat you have to wrack your entire little body to get the vomit out.
“I’m sorry,” Chenle apologizes, flushing the toilet and falling back into Mark’s hold. He should’ve just been more patient.
Mark sighs, grabbing a paper towel and wiping Chenle’s mouth.
“It’s okay, kitty.” His hand falls to Chenle’s stomach, rubbing it gently. “Do you feel better?”
“Mhm.” Chenle feels bad now…he should’ve just listened. “I’m sorry.”
Instead of scolding him, Mark kisses the side of his head. “It’s okay. How about this? We’ll brush your teeth, give you some water, and then when your stomach settles, you can have the Churu.”
Chenle could turn around and kiss Mark, but he doesn’t want to do that with his nasty vomit breath, so he settles for purring.
“Thank you.”
“It’s no problem.”
“Open wide!” Chenle shouts as he crawls onto Mark’s lap, shaking up the whipped cream can. Just like usual, Mark opens up his mouth, allowing Chenle to squirt the cream inside of it. This has become another one of their things.
Mark eats the whipped cream, before taking the bottle from Chenle and pushing him back onto the bed. Chenle loves playing with whipped cream, not just because of how great it tastes, but also because he gets to lick Mark. Mark isn't a cat, so he has to settle with brushing him when he’s in the mood to groom him. Also because he’s tried licking Mark’s hair, and it wasn’t very pleasant.
But honestly, Chenle loves licking Mark’s skin when he can. God, he tastes so good…
Most humans tend to taste a bit salty due to their sweat, but Chenle loves all the tastes of Mark. He loves the taste of his lotion, that taste of his aftershave, hell, he loves the taste of Mark’s sweat after a long day out.
It’s making Chenle shiver just thinking about it.
Mark pushes Chenle’s shirt up his waist, and sprays a circle of whipped cream around his belly button. The hybrid giggles as he watches Mark’s tongue slowly lick up the cream, locking eyes with Chenle the entire time that he does so.
Woah, steamy, but it’s Chenle’s turn now.
He tells Mark to lay on his back, grabbing the whipped cream can and shaking it before pushing Mark’s shirt up, but he doesn’t stop there. He tugs on the waistband of Mark’s briefs, tugging them down slightly, just so right above his base of his dick is exposed. Chenle sprays a stripe of cream right across, before licking it up.
“Chenle,” Mark groans, which means that they’re just getting closer and closer to the goal.
Mark sits up, and this time, he makes Chenle get on his hands and knees. He pushes Chenle’s shirt up his waist, and then rests one hand on the back of his head.
Between Mark’s hand pushing Chenle’s head into the pillow, and the feeling of the cold whipped cream being sprayed down the center of Chenle’s back, he already knows that there’s only one way this can end.
Chenle watches as the can rolls to the side of the bed, Mark dropping it in favor of holding Chenle’s hips in place, preventing him from moving as his tongue glides down the hybrid’s back.
Yeah, Chenle and Mark are definitely on the same page.
“How was your check-up?” Mark asks as Chenle re-enters the waiting room.
“Good,” Chenle responds, playing with the envelope in his hand. Just as he expects, Mark’s eyes fall down to it, gleaming with curiosity.
“What’s that?” He asks.
Chenle pretends to hesitate, before shaking his head.
“I’ll show you in the car.”
Mark raises an eyebrow suspiciously, but doesn’t question Chenle again until they get into the car.
“Can I see now?”
Chenle slowly hands the envelope over to Mark, watching his expression closely as he pulls out the photos.
“Surprise…” Chenle says.
Mark furrows his eyebrows and squints at the photo.
“Chenle, April Fools passed already.” He places the photos back into the envelope and passes it over to Chenle.
“What?” Chenle snatches the envelope. “Mark? What are you saying?”
Mark starts to chuckle as he starts the car. “Those are obviously fake.”
“No they’re not!” Chenle insists. “What? You don’t want babies? I thought you said that we’d have a lot of kids.”
Mark continues to laugh as they pull out of the parking lot. “Yeah, we’d adopt a lot of kids. Chenle, do I look dumb to you? You can’t get pregnant.”
“But I can!” This is where Chenle decides to cue the crocodile tears. “Did you even bother learning about hybrid biology when you first got me?”
“Huh?” The smile fades off of Mark’s face.
Chenle curls up in his seat, bringing his knees to his chest and letting the fake tears fall. “What? You don’t want me anymore?”
“No! No! Baby, I–” Mark struggles to focus on Chenle and the road at the same time. “We’ll finish talking about this at home.”
Chenle just nods, continuing to let the crocodile tears stream down his face.
So, you may be wondering where Chenle got this amazing idea from, and to that, he answers Jaemin. What better way to prank a partner than the good old ‘I’m Pregnant’ bit. Even better when it’s not even physically possible, but you’re able to convince them that it is.
Chenle spends the rest of the ride home trying to keep up the sad act, burying his face in his hands and only occasionally peeking over at Mark to make sure he still looks conflicted. Once they finally make it to the house, Mark takes another look at the ultrasound photo, trying to make sense of it.
“You’re telling me that this is real?” Mark asks carefully, turning the paper around to Chenle. “This is one-hundred percent real. Not edited. Not fake at all.”
“Yes.”
Mark takes a deep breath in, resting the paper on his lap and taking a deep breath in.
“Chenle.”
“Yes.”
“Stop fucking with me.”
And Chenle loses it right there, bursting out into laughter. While he wasn’t able to get Mark to fully believe the ultrasound, he was at least able to fuck with his mind for a bit. It probably only worked because Chenle was being so serious, and that’s not usually how he rolls. Chenle was surprised that Mark was even willing to take it this far, seeing as the ultrasound in question is so obviously fake, being a random one that Chenle found online and edited pictures of random kittens onto.
“I got you!” Chenle snatches the paper from Mark’s lap. “No way you looked at this and considered it being real for even a second.”
“I didn’t want to doubt you!”
Chenle can’t say that he’s met someone like Mark before, and that says a lot, because he’s met a lot of people, and even cats too. He thinks that he got lucky. Well, lucky is definitely a way to put it, seeing as Chenle forced himself into Mark’s life against his will, but it all worked itself out.
“You know, I shouldn’t even make fun of you for that,” Chenle says. “At least you were willing to hear me out, as ridiculous as it was.”
Chenle’s had a couple of owners, some good, some bad, but even the good ones could never compare to Mark, even when the two of them are having their bad days.
Mark brings his hand to Chenle’s chin, scratching it softly. “I’ll always hear you out, kitty.”
And despite how much Chenle loves the gesture, leaning into Mark’s hand and purring as he scratches just the right spot, he still has to do their thing: Antagonize Mark.
“Ew, don’t be all gross and sappy.”