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Damon holds the two ice cream cones in each of his hands as he makes his way back to his spot. Some of the chocolate coating is already breaking and the vanilla soft serve is dripping down on his fingers. He tries to not visibly show his discomfort in having sticky hands or sand in-between his toes while he walks up to Kai. He's been lying on the towel under the shade of the parasol, dosing off to the sound of the waves.
”Why did he make me fetch ice cream when he was going to fall asleep?” Damon thought.
Instead he just huffs out a sigh. Crouching down besides his boyfriend and presenting the ice cream.
“Hey, food delivery.”
Kai doesn't even stir from that.
Damn, he must be out of it.
Damon shuffles the cones to have both in one hand. With his other hand now free, he hovers it over Kai's body.
It's not like he isn't used to the sight of him like this. Far from it. But seeing a shirtless Kai in a public setting is new for both of them. Kai's slowly been getting more confident about himself and his appearance lately. Maybe it's him finally having friends that don't care what he looks like that helped him come out of his shell. Going less heavy on his photo editing (that still makes him look like he's made of porcelain) and not letting mean comments get to him (most of the time.)
Damon still doesn't understand what's there to hide. The display in front of him says it all. Soft skin, round nose, long eyelashes. Kai's hands are supporting his head which makes his arms flexed up. His chest that's rising and falling as he breathes. His “primordial pouch” as Cassidy affectionately calls it looks cute as ever. The way his swim shorts show off his legs perfectly…
God, He feels like a creep. Ogling his body like this while he's asleep. But that must come with boyfriend territory, right? Thinking your partner is sexy and appreciating every part of them?
When Damon considers just shaking him awake his hand moves on his own, reaching for his stomach and giving in a good squeeze.
What the…
What the fuck is he doing?!
He knows that's a part Kai's sensitive about so why did he do that?!
He turns back to Kai's face, now with his eyes open and looking back at Damon more confused than mad like he thought.
“What the fuck are you doing?”
Yeah, exactly what he thought.
Damon quickly swipes his hand away and tries to ignore the heat crawling on his face.
“You were asleep,” Damon explains, trying to not make his voice shake, “And I have your ice cream.”
He offers a cone to him, which makes Kai sit up and gladly take it.
“Oh yeah! I had no idea why I dozed off like that.”
“It was a bit of a wait.” Damon takes a bite of his own treat, the crunch of the chocolate coating makes it satisfying enough to ignore how cold his teeth gets. “I didn't know which flavor you liked so I got two vanillas.”
Kai opps for licking the drops spilling over the cone then biting it first. Damon hates how much it reminds him of a kitten.
“It's not far from what I usually get. Thanks”
Before Damon lets more thoughts linger, he stands back up and motions Kai to do the same.
“C'mon, let's walk for a bit while we eat. I'm not letting you lay around on a nice day.” He extends his hand to Kai. As much as Kai wants to retaliate, he really doesn’t have a good agreement. Not for the Ultimate Debater anyways.
Kai gets up and takes Damon's hand, heading out to get closer to the ocean.
They barely walk along where the waves fizzle out. The waves crashing and seagulls cawing being the only ambiance around them. As annoying as the sun beating down on them and getting in their eyes can be, the light shines perfectly shows off how lovely Kai's skin is in the sunshine. Damn his greed.
“I'm sorry about grabbing you like that earlier” Damon speaks up first.
“Dude, it's fine!” Kai moves closer to bump their shoulders, “I know that when you do it, it's out of love.”
“You're saying it like other people squished you before”
Kai laughs nervously, scratching the back of his neck with his free hand. “You'd be surprised how harsh some guys teased me.”
Putting the urge to smack whoever those guys in the past are aside, Damon awkwardly took another bite of his ice cream.
“Here.” Kai puts his arms out in front of his boyfriend. Before he could react, Kai goes for his belly and squeezes it for less than a second. It still makes Damon yelp and curl in on himself, nearly dropping his cone in the sand. “Now we're even.”
Damon shoots him a glare and tries to straighten himself up.
Kai seems… confident. He remembers when he would try to fish Damon out for compliments whenever someone would make several posts insulting him. Not maliciously by any means, Damon won't admit that he likes pointing out things he liked about Kai to him. Even the small quirks Kai doesn't even notice.
Damon's thought comes to a halt when he sees that his ice cream is nearly gone. And seeing that Kai is chewing away at his cone shows they've been walking in silence for a while.
“Do you want my cone?” He asks, holding it out for him
Kai makes them both stop as he looks down at the cone then back up and Damon. It makes him lower his hand a bit.
“It's fine if you don't want it-”
“You trying to fatten me up, Damie?”
It's teasing. Damon knows this. It's the same tone he uses when he's making fun of him for something. But that forced, wobbly smile he's putting on is telling a different story. What made him ask that?
“What, No I-” Damon's confusion makes him a stuttering mess for a few seconds until he spits out “Where is this coming from?!”
“Dude, you've been staring at me all day!” Kai points an accusatory finger at him, “Like you wanna take a bite out of me!”
“And that's… a bad thing?”
“I mean… No? Yes? I don't know.” Kai shamefully looks at the ground, his arm wrapping around himself and holds his elbow. Like he's giving a small hug to himself “You wouldn't believe how much I hyped myself up just to come out here. I thought I was okay going out shirtless but…”
He lightly kicks at the sand. Some ending up on top of Damon's foot. Now he has both arms up to his torso like he's attempting to cover his exposed skin.
“I have been doing so good lately.” Kai says in a hush voice.
The silence lingers. The waves inch closer until their feet are submerged. Kai isn't looking Damon in the eye, instead he's more fixed on the ripples of water glistening in the sun.
Damon knows that he can't just make Kai's insecurities go away. No matter how much praise or indisputable facts he gives him that, objectively, he's fine the way he is. But the fact his boyfriend is upset because of him
To that, Damon makes another impulsive move.
He undoes the jacket that's tied to his waist and drapes it over Kai's shoulders. Kai gets his attention back on him, tugging the jacket over him more.
“I'm not sure this'll help.” Damon admits, “You have been getting more confident. I'm not sure what I did to make you upset but-”
“Oh nonono it's not you, honest!” Kai steps closer, “I've been a self-conscious wreck ever since we got here! At least I know you think I'm hot.”
Now it's Damon's turn to look away. Like hell he'll admit that's true to his face. Not directly.
“But you're my boyfriend so that's just a given. It's different when I'm in public. You saw how Grace acted when she first saw me.”
Ah, right. During orientation, she called out his photo editing and told him about his ‘horse face.’ Thankfully she's mellow out about him since then, though she still takes jabs at him from time to time.
Damon pulls him closer and brings him in for a hug. Kai only stands and lets him wrap his arms around him. Clearly not resisting.
“I know I said it a hundred times already, but your body is the only one you have.”
“‘And I should be proud of it.’” Kai finishes his sentence, remembering previous discussions about the same topic. “Yeah, yeah. ‘Treat my body like a temple’ and such.”
“And besides this is real life, not the internet. No one would come up to you and insult you to your face unless they wanted to make a scene.”
Kai nods his head against him, tension leaving him.
“Right, you're so right.” He rests his head against his neck, “And you could verbally beat people up if they ever do that to me!”
He eventually returns the hug. A nice moment of him pulling their bodies together was interrupted but a crunch sound, followed by Damon feeling something cold run down his back.
They both freeze, realizing what caused the sound. Specifically Kai pulling back and seeing the shattered cone and flowing mess in his hand.
“Uh, Damon-”
“Don't.” Damon bluntly requests.
“Well, you have a whole ocean behind you to clean it off.” Kai gestures at said ocean with his dirty hand. “Which is what I need to do for my hand.”
Kai promptly drags Damon with him to the water. As much as he tries to release himself, his disdain for the ice cream now slowly coming down his spine weighs out for his disdain of swimming.
It was only when the water was up to their knees did Kai stop. Bending down and swishing his hand around making ripples in the ocean. Once he deems his hand clean he turns to Damon, who was unconsciously stepping little by little away from the sea.
“It's your turn, Damon!” He motions him to go further in the ocean. “Go get clean!”
Kai takes Damon's cone as he walks back to shore. Leaving him no excuse to lay in the water. As the waves get stronger as he's floating on his back, he appreciates the view of Kai taking the jacket off. The display of his cute, chubby boyfriend makes the swimming worth it.