Work Text:
Ian was lying on his bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Another school day had just ended but unfortunately, he didn’t know what he was going to do so he just sat there for a while.
After several minutes, he decided in the end to look at the Smosh website that his best friend, Anthony had created towards the end of last year. He sat down on his desk chair, turned on his computer, and then he got onto the website. He was looking around on it a bit when he noticed something new in the “movies” section.
He saw what looked like a new flash animation, and it was titled “The most boring day ever.” He noticed Anthony’s username on it, so he got curious as to what it was and he clicked on it.
The animation was a little violent since it had a lot of blood in it with this one stick figure killing a lot of other stick figures, (which was something that he was pretty used to seeing in people’s animations already) but Ian did enjoy it as he was always happy to see whatever his best friend had created, and he was thankful to have this flash animation to watch during this time where he was feeling like there was nothing else to do.
Watching that video did give Ian an idea however: what if he made his own flash animation? Sure he made one not too long ago, but it was only a few seconds long and it was really shitty and poorly drawn since he didn’t know much about how the animating software worked and he made it in just 15 or so minutes, so he didn’t actually count it as one really.
He did wonder if he could make another one that was better and longer than that last one though, one that was just like the ones that Anthony made. He wasn’t sure if he could do it though since he wasn’t super tech savvy like Anthony was, so there were definitely some hints of doubt creeping into his mind. He didn’t even know what he wanted his animation to be about yet anyway, so he had no idea where to even start.
~~~~~~
After around an hour of browsing the Smosh website some more and watching animations on newgrounds, Ian was hit by a wave of inspiration and he started to get an idea as to what he wanted his flash animation to be about. He swiftly opened his bedroom drawer and he dug out his notebook and a black pen. He began to write down his ideas as they came to him, which gradually turned into a comprehensible outline for a potential flash animation.
Ian stared at what he had down in his notebook with pride and excitement, eager to turn what he had down into something real.
He went onto the animating software on his computer, but he quickly recognised that he didn’t really know what he was doing as he really wasn’t familiar with how any of it worked. For a moment, he felt defeated, but then he remembered that Anthony has made a few flash movies himself (along with the whole Smosh website) so he would probably know what to do.
Ian decided that he was going to tell Anthony about his concept for a flash animation tomorrow at school and honestly, he felt excited to show his best friend what he had thought up, especially since Anthony has been supportive of his ideas before, even though Ian often felt like he isn’t nearly as important to Smosh in comparison to him. He does feel a little more insignificant at times, but he tries to not dwell on it
He also hopes that he can get Anthony to help him since he knew that there was just no way that he’ll be able to bring his concept to life without some assistance from someone more experienced.
~~~~~~
Ian was at school now, and as always, the lessons were insanely boring. He was planning to talk to Anthony during lunch about his idea for a flash movie as well as show him his notes on it that were currently in his school bag, so he was mainly thinking about that during the day as the lessons droned on.
When lunch finally came, Ian walked over to the usual spot that him and his friend group hung out at during this time in the hopes of finding his best friend and as luck would have it, Anthony was right there amongst their other friends, complete with his straightened hair and his emo band t-shirt that he had on.
Anthony had only recently started to straighten his hair on occasion, so Ian still wasn’t fully used to seeing his hair like that. Admittedly he preferred his friend’s natural curls, but he also thought his emo fringe looked really cool too.
“Hey Anthony.” Ian greeted, walking towards his friend.
“Hi.” Anthony casually replied.
Ian stood there for a moment, trying to find the right words to say to the boy that was sitting there in front of him.
“Uh, can I show you something?”
“Sure man, what is it?”
Ian looked around for a moment, and after seeing that their other friends were busy having their own conversations and not paying any attention to them, he opened up his school bag and he pulled out his notebook. Ian only wanted Anthony to see these notes since as hard as it is for him to admit to himself, he cares a great deal about Anthony’s opinion, a lot more so in comparison to his other friends’ opinions.
“I have this uh, idea for a flash animation. It’s about this superhero called wheelchair boy who faces off against these evil robbers who are also riding on these dogs that have skates on, and there could be this epic battle at the end where wheelchair boy and the main robber face off against each other, and also-“ Ian went on excitedly, getting more and more animated and confident as he spoke.
“That sounds really cool dude, I like it!” Anthony exclaimed with an approving grin once Ian had finished talking.
Ian could feel his face crease into a wide smile knowing that Anthony liked his idea, and he definitely felt so much lighter too, almost as if he had levitating with giddiness.
“So, I was wondering if you could uhh, help me create this flash animation since as you already know, I’m pretty bad with this kind of stuff, so I would really appreciate it if you could help me with this after school.” Ian proposed slightly nervously, since he wasn’t used to asking others for help.
“Sure man, I’ll help you. I will have to ask my mom if it’s okay for me to come over after school though, or else she’ll kill me.”
“Woah, is your mom a serial killer or something?” Ian joked.
“Yeah, She totally is and if you tell anyone about it, your ass will be next!” Anthony quipped back.
Ian giggled as the two of them fell into their usual rhythm of banter, something that felt almost like home to him in a way that nothing else could quite compare. For a short while, it was like the rest of the world had disappeared except for him and his best friend as they both continued to effortlessly riff off of each other.
After a while of them going back and forth, Anthony piped up:
“I will see if I can come over after school, and I’ll message you over AIM later to let you know whether I can come over or not.”
“Cool, I hope I’ll see you later!”
The best friends said their goodbyes to each other as lunch ended and they each set off to their classes.
Like earlier, Ian’s thoughts were about Anthony as yet another class was going on and on for seemingly forever. He was feeling a little nervous about him potentially coming over, (if he was allowed to today) but he was mostly excited to work together with his best friend on something that he was genuinely passionate about.
He wonders if they’ll work well together.
~~~~~~
Ian was pacing around his room as he was waiting for Anthony to arrive. He had gotten the message from his best friend about how he will be coming over and while Ian was thrilled that Anthony can show up and work with him on the flash animation, a small part of him still felt kinda restless even though Anthony has been over at his house many times before.
“It’s just Anthony.” Ian says to himself in an attempt to calm his unwavering nerves.
Right after Ian reassured himself, he heard a knock at the door outside. He went up to where the knock came from and he opened the door, revealing his beaming best friend, who appeared even brighter in the warm sunlight outside.
“Hey dude!” Anthony chirped.
“Hi Anthony, how’s it going?”
“I’m good, I’m just excited to see what you’re planning on making.”
“I don’t see why you would be, it’s pretty bad.” Ian rolled his eyes.
“I’m sure it’s not but even if it is, it’s okay, no one is perfect.” Anthony gently reassured.
Ian was slightly taken aback by Anthony’s comment since they didn’t usually say things like that to each other, but he brushed it off quickly.
“So anyways, are you actually going to come inside or are you just gonna stand there and burn to death in the heat?”
“You’re right, I probably should come inside now before all of my flesh starts melting off of my body.” Returned Anthony jokingly.
The boys shared a quick laugh as Anthony stepped foot into Ian’s house, an experience that was all too familiar for the both of them. The two teens walked up the stairs and into Ian’s bedroom, both of them eager to start working on this project together.
They got two chairs and they sat down next to each other at the desk with Ian’s computer in front of them, with Ian turning his computer on and then getting onto the animating software.
“Here’s what I have so far, I only have a bit of the background for this first shot since I don’t really know what I’m doing when it comes to this stuff.”
“That’s alright, I’ll help you learn the basics and before you know it, you’ll have this totally awesome video that everyone will like!” Anthony declared assuredly with an encouraging smile.
Ian couldn’t help but return Anthony’s smile after hearing his words of motivation, his confidence being restored (at least for now) as he now felt ready to start working on this animation that he really wanted to bring to life.
“So, where do we even start? I did a little bit of this one background, but what do we actually do first?” Asked Ian.
“I think we should make the characters first, start working on the backgrounds second, then we can start animating everything once we’ve finished with that.”
“That sounds like a good idea, let’s do that.” Ian agreed, nodding.
They started drawing some of the stick figure characters first, which was pretty easy since stick figures aren’t too detailed or difficult to draw. Ian struggled to draw the wheelchair that the main character would be in though, so Anthony had to step in and do a bit of it, much to Ian’s mild annoyance.
Ian already felt like he didn’t do enough for the Smosh website, which is why he felt the need to do almost all of the drawings by himself in order to make up for what he saw as his lack of contribution to the website in comparison to Anthony, hence why he felt a bit disappointed in himself when he couldn’t even draw something without help. He quickly ignored that feeling pretty much as soon as it appeared though.
“Dude, all of your drawings look like a three year old drew them.” Teased Anthony once his best friend had finished drawing most of the characters that will be used.
“Well, I’d like to see you try and draw something decent with this crappy ass mouse.” Ian playfully retorted.
“Is that a challenge?”
“Yeah dude, draw something with this mouse that doesn’t look like shit!” Ian challenged.
He slid the mouse over towards Anthony and as he did that, he felt Anthony’s hand touch his own and even though the contact only lasted for a couple seconds or so, Ian started feeling pretty flustered and like a bunch of butterflies had just appeared in his stomach. For a moment, he wonders how Anthony’s hand would feel if it was intertwined with his own, but he quickly shuts down that unusually gay sounding thought. Why the hell did he just think that just now?
Anthony grasped the mouse as he began to draw one of the dogs that the robbers will be riding on. His eyes were glued to the screen and he was gripping the mouse quite a lot as he tried to make his drawing look at least somewhat okay, while also having it match Ian’s previous drawings at the same time.
“Dude, is that the best that you can do?” Ian said, chuckling at the drawing of the dog onscreen that Anthony made.
“Well I was trying to make it look like your ‘art style’ so don’t bash me for how gay it looks.” Anthony countered, doing air quotes as he said the words ‘art style’.
“Well, I guess you’ve got a good point there.” Muttered Ian, slightly defeated.
The boys continued working on the flash animation for the next half hour, with them adding the finishing touches to the simple character designs and even being able to work on some of the backgrounds for some scenes too. Although they got some stuff done, they spent most of that half hour laughing and joking with each other as time ticked by quickly.
Ian felt the happiest he had been in a while, his face aching a little from how much he was smiling and enjoying himself alongside his best friend. It also felt really nice to have Anthony there to guide him through this and teach him how to properly make a flash animation, which is something that Ian certainly appreciated wholeheartedly.
Unfortunately, all good things have to come to an end and before Ian knew it, it was time for Anthony to go home. He was a little saddened since they were having a lot of fun together, but he knew that his best friend had to go eventually.
“Bye dude, I hope I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“I’m sure we’ll see each other at school tomorrow, we’re pretty much forced to go there every weekday anyway.”
“Yeah, I suppose that’s true.” Ian replied, feeling slightly down due to his friend having to leave, his eyes vaguely drooping.
“I’m sure I’ll be able to come over again another day and continue to help you make this, I’ll be fine with doing that.” Suggested Anthony, as if he had just read his sapphire-eyed friend’s mind.
Ian lit up immediately upon hearing that, both from the relief of knowing that Anthony will be able to continue helping him on his flash animation, and also from the mild shock that he felt from how his friend just read him that accurately, although maybe he shouldn’t be too surprised since they’ve known each other for a few years after all.
“That sounds good to me!” Exclaimed Ian cheerily as he walked across his bedroom to say another temporary goodbye to Anthony, as his closest friend was making his exit from Ian’s bedroom.
Once Anthony had left, Ian sat down on the side of his bed for a minute, reflecting on what he had just done with his best friend, and he felt satisfied with how his project is turning out thanks to Anthony’s help. He also genuinely enjoyed being with him too, which was an added bonus. On top of that, they also worked really, really well together and Ian definitely realised that as him and Anthony were bouncing ideas off of each other effortlessly with Anthony taking Ian’s initial concepts and building them up further in ways that even he didn’t think of.
Ian was certainly looking forward to when Anthony comes over again to help him, that’s for sure.
~~~~~~
After that initial session they had together, Anthony came over to Ian’s house after school most days that week so that he can continue to assist Ian with his project and honestly, it was going really well. Anthony has taught him more about how to use the software since he can now do a lot of the animating and backgrounds by himself, although Anthony does still need to step in every now and then to correct the mistakes that Ian still made from time to time, and he also provides some ideas for a few things too.
Not only was the production of the flash animation going excellently, but they were also having a great time working together. It was like their already amazing friendship had also transferred over to this potential working relationship that they had going on for this project, and Ian couldn’t be happier with how well it was going. They’ve always loved to make each other laugh, and that was only amped up whenever they were working on this silly animation together as they were constantly trying to one up each other playfully and joke around as much as possible while also getting at least a little bit of the work done too in the process.
Ian was especially happy to be spending all of this time with Anthony because he can vividly recall a fairly long period of time where he wasn’t able to do that.
He remembers how Anthony was sick and bedridden for all of those months last year and as a result, he couldn’t really hang out with him at that time like they used to almost every day. He can think back to when he would show up to school day by day and his best friend would always be nowhere to be found, and that made Ian feel a deep pit of loneliness within him, even though he always tried to push that feeling down.
That loneliness he felt may or may not’ve pushed him to put Anthony into one of the halo fanfics he was writing at the time, which is a shameful secret that he will certainly never be telling anyone - especially not his best friend as he would definitely die of mortification on the spot if Anthony found out about that.
One thing that he certainly learnt during that time was that school (and maybe even life as a whole too) felt so much more boring and monotonous without someone by his side to goof off with.
Ian can remember making that get well soon card for Anthony and getting everyone he knew to sign it. He cannot recall whether or not it was his own idea or his mum’s idea but either way, he really hoped that his friend would get better and that his card would cheer him up a little.
A small part of him was terrified at points that he would end up losing Anthony in a more permanent way due to his illness, even though he knew realistically that his friend should be okay in the end, and he felt kind’ve embarrassed to be thinking things like that.
However, all of that was a while ago and right now Ian was packing his bag ready to go to Anthony’s house for a sleepover. It was now the weekend, which was when they would usually have sleepovers at each other’s houses, so this routine was nothing foreign to them. Once he had put all of the stuff that he needed into his bag, he started heading off to Anthony’s house.
Once he got there, he knocked on the door and as usual, he was greeted by the sight of his emo-haired best friend on the other side of it.
They chatted for a bit until Anthony let him in but throughout their brief conversation, Ian could feel his eyes gravitating towards his friend’s scarlet cheeks and his thin, pale pink lips and his heart started to race like it always does around Anthony. He doesn’t exactly know why that happens, but he hopes that his possible staring wasn’t too obvious.
As usual, they both went up to Anthony’s bedroom, Ian was greeted with the usual sight of Anthony’s cd wall and his single bed, along with his desk too. They then started hanging out like they always do.
After some time has passed, Anthony made a suggestion for what they could do next.
“We could record the voice lines for the flash animation with my mic.” He put forward, his eyes darting towards Ian in an attempt to gauge what he was thinking.
“Wait, we can do that? But how will we implement the recordings into it if we don’t do it with my computer?”
“That’s easy, I can send you the files of the recordings later once we’ve done them and then you can put them in the video yourself.” Explained Anthony.
“Yeah, I totally knew that.” Replied Ian dryly.
Anthony got out his microphone and started setting it up with his laptop, getting it ready for use. It was admittedly a pretty cheap and shitty one, so the quality of it may not be the best, but they had to make do with what they had.
“So, since you’re going to be voicing wheelchair boy and those two dudes who get hit by his spaz ray, who am I going to be?” Enquired Anthony curiously.
“You can be the main robber who rides on the dalmation if you want to.” Ian suggested, shrugging like it was obvious.
“Yeah dude, I’ll totally voice that character, but who is going to be doing the lines for the other robbers that appear?”
“I’ll be those other robbers too.”
“Are you sure man?” Anthony questioned. “I would be alright with doing those voices too.”
“It’s fine, I’m perfectly capable of doing most of the voices in this, it’s not that hard to do.” Ian stubbornly insisted. He didn’t want to burden Anthony with even more work after everything he’s done for him, that would just be selfish. And plus like he’s just said, he is able to do all of those characters himself, it’s not that difficult.
“Okay okay, you can do those characters too, you’re pretty much the director of this whole thing anyway, so it’s your choice at the end of the day.” Said Anthony as he put his hands up a bit in mock-surrender.
Ian had already written down the script and the dialogue for the characters in his notebook prior to this, so they didn’t have to worry about needing to come up with anything new right now, which meant that they were able to start recording whenever they felt like it since Anthony had now finished setting up the mic.
Anthony put on his headphones and then took a deep breath as he began to do a few of his lines and aside from the occasional stutter or giggle, he was able to do most of them in just a couple of takes because he was somewhat familiar with recording himself for his own flash animations that he’s made before.
Ian on the other hand however, was feeling pretty nervous since he was new to this whole flash animation type thing as he had never done this before.
As he watched Anthony continue to deliver some of his lines, Ian’s nerves were caught between getting worse from the fear of messing up and embarrassing himself in front of his best friend, and ceasing altogether from just watching Anthony passionately engaging in his project like this. Ian could feel a slight grin forming on his face and a bit of laughter starting to come out of his mouth, almost like Anthony’s joy was infecting him despite the mild anxiety he was currently experiencing.
“Alright dude, now it’s your turn to do some of your lines.” Declared Anthony as he handed the mic and headphones to Ian.
When Ian received the headphones and microphone from Anthony he stood up, mic in hand as Anthony sat down on his chair, ready to do his lines despite the nerves he was still feeling.
“I guess I’ll go and do this, even though I know that I will definitely mess it up and make it sound stupid or something.” Ian said wryly.
“It’s fine if you do, it’ll probably make it sound funnier if you mess it up to be honest.” Anthony expressed honesty in what seemed to have been a sincere attempt to help Ian feel better.
“Yeah, Maybe you’re right. If I do end up sounding stupid, then the characters will too, and that’ll just make it even better.” Ian eventually agreed. Maybe Anthony was right? Maybe he shouldn’t care about how dumb he may look while doing this.
After some more back and forth between the two of them and after doing some memorisation of the script, Ian began recording his lines.
Ian was initially a bit awkward with his delivery of the lines, with him being hesitant to even swear due to his ingrained fear of getting in trouble for it despite the fact that he literally put a bit of swearing into some of the dialogue that he was supposed to now be vocalising, which was admittedly a little dumb of him to do.
Unsurprisingly, that led to Anthony teasing him and while he did eventually get out those lines that contained swearing, they came out sounding a bit quiet compared to other parts due to Ian being afraid of Anthony’s mum hearing him utter swear words, while Anthony didn’t seem to care as much.
Once Ian was done with that, he moved on to doing everything else and to his surprise, he was finding it easier and easier to record the rest of it, with his stutters reducing in frequency and his confidence increasing thanks to Anthony’s encouragement and because it felt more natural the longer he did this for. He was definitely starting to feel quite happy with how this is all going, not only could he not wait until everyone else sees his amazing flash animation once it’s finished, but he has been having such a blast working with Anthony on this project.
Maybe they should work together on more things in the future? Ian’s really starting to think that idea doesn’t sound bad at all.
Ian glanced over at Anthony after a while as he was recording one of the last lines he needed to do, and his heart skipped a beat. He saw his best friend sitting there on his chair, looking straight at him with the most fond look on his face. Anthony was wearing a smile that was so bright, sunlight seemed to be pouring out of it and even his eyes appeared to be sparkling from ecstasy.
Seeing Anthony like that threw Ian off quite a bit, his mind forgetting all about what he was supposed to be doing as his body was hit with this sudden feeling of warmth (that he felt particularly on his face) and this strange sensation in his stomach that he has never noticed before. It felt really weird, but also amazing at the same time.
Ian felt himself burst into a mild fit of giggles in this moment, and he can hear Anthony doing the same not too far from him. Even though he will have to redo this last line, he barely cared about that because he was just feeling so content to be here with his best friend. It was like nothing else really mattered in the world.
Once the air felt more calm after what just happened, there was only one more thing left for them to do before (most of) their work was done.
“Alright man, we just have to record this last part and then we’re done.” Anthony said as Ian was taking off his headphones.
“Oh yeah, the part at the end with the epic battle where they charge towards each other while they start randomly screaming? That’ll definitely be really funny.”
Anthony nodded in agreement as Ian handed him the microphone and headphones as he got ready to record the hilarious (at least to them) screaming sounds of the characters for the animation.
“Wait, are you sure that this is a good idea?” Ian hesitated, slightly nervous at the thought of having to scream into a microphone while Anthony’s mother was home.
“Yeah, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’ve done this a few times before and nothing bad has ever happened and plus, the results have always been incredibly funny.” Persuaded Anthony, his warm brown eyes looking directly into Ian as he said that, which made Ian’s heart quicken and his face flush. He just couldn’t say no to those eyes.
“Fine man, I’ll do some screaming with you, but it’s not my fault if we get in trouble for it.” Ian relented, still sensing Anthony’s ever-present gaze.
His friend wore a mischievous smirk as he put on the headphones and moved his face closer to the mic.
Anthony opened his mouth and let out a ridiculous sounding scream directly into the microphone. Both him and Ian started bursting out laughing after he did that, especially when Anthony played the recording back a few times afterwards, it was like it just got funnier every time. Ian even felt a few tears escaping from his eyes from the sheer amount of laughter as Anthony continued to do some more screaming in the mic a couple more times.
Ian felt a newfound wave of confidence hit him, so he decided to try doing some screaming into the mic like Anthony had done, his fear of getting in trouble for doing this being entirely forgotten within just a couple of minutes.
Ian decided to try what Anthony was doing once he was done, and just like when his best friend did it, it was pretty side-splitting for the both of them. This past week of working with Anthony had been quite possibly one of the best weeks of his life. He’s always laughed a lot with Anthony and enjoyed his presence, but those feelings have been especially strong this past week and Ian was starting to notice that a bit, but he didn’t think about it too much.
They were both laughing at the scream sound that Ian made as they were replaying it again and again, when Ian heard the sound of footsteps coming from outside of Anthony’s bedroom.
“Shit.” Ian muttered under his breath. He’s sure he knows what that means.
The door swung open to reveal Anthony’s mum, with her facial expression being one of mild annoyance with her arms being crossed.
“Boys, can you please keep it down in here? I’m trying to sleep.” She scolded in a slightly raised tone of voice.
Anthony looked down in shame, his shoulders slumping. Ian subconsciously copied those movements, which is something that’s been happening more and more frequently as of late.
“S-sorry mom. We won’t do that again.” Anthony mumbled sheepishly, his eyes looking anywhere but his mother’s face.
Ian also said his apologies to Anthony’s mum, feeling quite embarrassed about getting told off like this at his friend’s house. He couldn’t believe that he had done something that dumb with Anthony and even though they both got told off for it, it was actually a pretty fun experience and he doesn’t regret it.
“Thank you boys.” She said, her facial expression softening as she uncrossed her arms. “As much as your noise disturbed me, it’s really great to see how well you two get along with each other, you are just such great friends.” Anthony’s mother cooed at them.
Ian was surprised by that comment she just made about him and Anthony. He knew that him and Anthony were pretty close, but he just didn’t expect to hear someone else acknowledge it in this kind of way and as a result, he was left feeling vaguely taken aback.
“Uhhh, thanks?” Was all Ian could muster right now since he didn’t know what else to say to that, his heart rate picking up yet again as he was trying to process the comment that Anthony’s mother just made.
With a tender smile and a twinkle in her eye, Anthony’s mum turned around and left her son’s bedroom, shutting the door behind her.
“Dude, my mom just told us off for being too loud.” Anthony abashedly remarked.
“And who’s fault is that, Mr ‘nothing bad has ever happened’?” Ian came back at the other boy jokingly.
“Shut up homo.”
“No you shut up.”
“You really need to shut up, you’re clearly the gay one here, not me.” Retorted Anthony.
This went on for some time, with their back and forth dynamic making a return. It was about as natural as breathing for them to fall into this way of communication, and although it may not be seen as too conventional to others, for them it was perfectly ordinary.
Eventually when they were done bantering, Anthony steered the topic back to what they were doing before his mum interrupted them.
“I think we’re done with the recording stuff now.”
“Yeah, I think so too. It was fun though.”
Anthony unplugged the microphone from his laptop and saved all of the audio files of their recordings on there for him to send to Ian at a later date.
He then picked up the laptop and walked over to his bed and sat down on the bed with his computer on his lap.
“What are you doing?” Ian enquired curiously, his azure blue eyes fixated on his best friend.
“I’m just gonna go and work on these website designs that I have to finish.” He explained.
“Can I-“ Ian hesitated for a moment before asking.
“Can I sit next to you?” Ian quietly asked. He wasn’t sure what exactly compelled him to ask Anthony that or why he even wanted to do that in the first place, but there was no taking back his words now that he has said them.
“Sure man, you can sit here.” His friend answered, his hand patting a part of the mattress that was right next to him.
Ian grinned as he joined his best friend on his bed. He glanced at what was on the screen in front of Anthony and of course, he saw him using the software he typically used when he was designing websites, mainly website designs for other people to use as a way for him to make money, and because he genuinely liked doing it.
Ian continued grinning in contentment. Anything was fun when Anthony was by his side, even watching him design websites was pretty enjoyable for him.
~~~~~~
It’s now way past midnight and since the animation has been mostly completed (aside from Ian having to add the voiceovers and credits to it later on) and Anthony had finished designing the websites he needed to do, the boys didn’t know what else to do.
“Man I’m bored, what should we do now?” asked Ian.
“Maybe we could look at newgrounds for a while, there’s this one video that was posted on there recently that I really want to show you.” Anthony suggested.
“Sounds good to me, I’d like to see it!” Replied Ian excitedly. Ian knew that his best friend had good taste, so he was looking forward to seeing whatever Anthony had to show him.
Anthony smiled as he searched up the website and went on to it. He then found the video he wanted to show Ian and he played it.
The flash animation was really funny and Ian found himself laughing so hard and so much that he was a little worried that he might wake up Anthony’s mother or little brothers, but luckily he doesn’t. Anthony was cracking up too, his cheeks turning slightly pink from how much he was cackling at the stick figures on screen.
“Dude that was so hilarious!”
“I know! I’m glad that you liked it!” Anthony replied as his laughter died down.
The two best friends continued to look through the library of content on the website for a while, both of them giggling together as they viewed more and more videos during the early hours of the morning, both of them laughing at stupid stuff on newgrounds until they cried.
The two of them were still sitting right next to each other on Anthony’s bed and Ian couldn’t help but start to really notice how close he was to Anthony as he can feel their shoulders brushing up against each other and their legs were touching too. It felt really nice actually, but also a little strange since Ian cannot remember the last time that they were this physically close to each other. He felt a bit awkward about it but at the same time, he cannot bring himself to pull away.
As they kept on looking at things on the computer with Anthony, Ian continued to feel this weird tingling feeling throughout his body whenever Anthony laughed or whenever his shoulders would brush up against him. It was like every nerve in him was activating at once and Ian couldn’t seem to stop his hands from slightly trembling or his palms from sweating. He could also feel his face heat up, like all of his blood was going straight there (was he blushing???) and on top of that, he felt his heart pounding in his chest so much that he wondered if Anthony could hear it.
At this point, Ian had almost completely zoned out and was not focusing on what was going on on the computer screen anymore, all he could focus on was his best friend who was so close to him that they were touching constantly, so close that Ian could hear his every breath, so close that he could begin to properly catalog every detail of his face, complete with his enchanting brown eyes. God this felt so-
“Ian? Are you okay dude?” Anthony’s voice cut through Ian’s thoughts, causing him to zone back in after what felt like an eternity.
Once Ian started to become more aware of his surroundings again, he realised that his head was now pillowed onto Anthony’s shoulder and his hand was also resting on his friend’s thigh. He’d been so deeply immersed in his own thoughts around his best friend that he didn’t even realise that his body had seemingly moved on it’s own into this position, like it was instinctual.
“I’m fine, I’m just a little tired that’s all.”
“Okay, you can keep doing that if you want to, but don’t start drooling on me if you fall asleep on my ass.”
Ian chuckled lightly at Anthony’s remark as he drifted back into his daydreams about his best friend. He could feel the warmth emitting from Anthony’s body and he could smell the familiar scent of his cologne and he felt weirdly comforted by those things, although that feeling wasn’t uncommon when he was around his best friend so he just shrugged it off like he always does.
“Anthony?” Ian breathed, his voice low as he slowly moved his head off of Anthony’s shoulder and started facing him.
“Yeah?” Replied Anthony as he turned his attention to Ian, completely ignoring what he was initially doing on his computer.
Ian tried to get some words out, but his attempts to do so failed as his voice was caught in his throat at the mere sight of his best friend’s face. His bright blue eyes were staring right into Anthony’s alluring brown ones and Ian continued to feel his heart thumping against his rib cage as he took in the heavenly sight of the boy who was right in front of him, and he felt himself lean closer and closer to Anthony’s face.
The logical part of his brain had all but turned off at this point as Ian felt this instinctual pull towards his best friend and before he knew it, his plump lips met Anthony’s soft ones. Ian could feel his face somehow getting even redder and this intense euphoria that was spreading all throughout his body as he continued kissing the other boy, not caring at all about the potential consequences of this right now with his mind only thinking about how amazing and perfect this whole thing feels.
The kiss only lasted a few seconds and Ian wasn’t fully sure if Anthony kissed back but it felt like it had lasted forever, like a million lifetimes packed together into just this one moment.
As the moment came to an end, there was this lingering heavy atmosphere around them as they sat in silence for a while, both trying to process what just happened. Anthony looked slightly dazed as his previously straightened hair was beginning to return to its natural curly state, and Ian could’ve sworn that he saw a hint of blush creep up onto Anthony’s cheeks, but his mind was probably just playing tricks on him.
Like Ian, Anthony seemed to be at a loss of words as well with him having an unreadable expression on his face, which made Ian start to realise the full extent of what he’d just done, and he started to internally panic.
Ian thought that he only liked Anthony as a friend and nothing more, but this incident told him otherwise and needless to say, it absolutely terrified him to think of the possibility that he might’ve been love with his best friend this whole time. It was like the truth had been sitting there in front of him this whole time but he was just too oblivious to realise it before it got to this point. He could’ve stopped himself from acting this stupid if he had realised it sooner, but of course he had to be a fool and potentially destroy his friendship over something that he should’ve only reserved for girls.
The idea of being in love with Anthony was one that Ian felt really embarrassed and ashamed with because he had always been under the impression that being gay was only something to be joked about and something that isn’t normal or acceptable, so why does he feel this way towards Anthony?
It was like the universe was pulling a cruel prank on him by giving him these confusing feelings that felt so wrong to him, but he was going to have to put up with this inconvenient hand that he had been dealt and he just needed to wait for these feelings to go away on their own so that he can at least try and maintain his friendship with his best friend(?) despite what had just happened between them.
After a while, Anthony eventually spoke up.
“Sh-should we call it a night? It’s pretty late now.” Anthony asked with uncertainty as he brought Ian out of his thoughts for the second time this hour.
“Yeah we should probably go to sleep, it’s definitely super late now and I feel really tired.” Ian agreed, getting off of Anthony’s bed.
He got his sleeping bag out of his bag and placed it onto the floor but before he got into it, he moved it as far across the room as he could away from Anthony’s bed in order to try and distance himself from this awkward situation that he has ended up in.
“Goodnight Ian.” Said Anthony as he turned off the bedroom light.
“Goodnight.” Ian mumbled as he yawned and closed his eyes, trying his absolute hardest to distract himself from all of his feelings. It took him forever to finally fall asleep due to how much he was still thinking about his best friend and what he had just done tonight, but he eventually found himself drifting into unconsciousness, so at least he won’t have to worry about this for another few hours - although he would prefer to never think about this ever again if he could.
~~~~~~
Ian woke up the next morning and upon seeing Anthony in his bed on the other side of the room, he instantly gets hit with flashbacks about what had transpired just a few hours ago. Before he could think more about it though, the now fully curly haired boy also started to wake up.
“Good morning.” Anthony slurred sleepily as he gradually woke up in his bed.
“Morning to you too”
They both slowly got up and groggily made their way to the kitchen. They were still pretty tired in the morning, which was to be expected due to how they stayed up way past midnight, as they would normally do when they had these sleepovers at the weekend.
They ate breakfast mostly in silence as Ian really didn’t know what to say to his best friend after what had just happened last night. There was this weird unspoken tension around them now and he just wanted the ground to open up and swallow him whole. At least then he would be away from the embarrassment and awkwardness of having to sit at the table with the friend that he literally kissed last night like he was a hot girl or something. Wow he’s such a fuck up, he couldn’t even end up kissing the right person and instead he just had to go and ruin his friendship instead like an idiot.
After Ian finished his breakfast, he got up and immediately went straight to Anthony’s room to get dressed out of his pajamas, desperate to escape this surreal nightmare of perplexing emotions and racing thoughts that he’s trying so hard to bottle up, but the emotional cracks are starting to form from within him, so he better leave now before he fucks everything up even more then he already has.
“What are you doing?” asked Anthony, who appeared at the bedroom door as Ian had just finished dressing himself.
“Oh I- I’m just getting ready to leave, I’ve, uh, got some homework that I need to do so I really need to go home now and get it done.”
The look that Anthony had in his eyes told Ian immediately that he knew that he wasn’t telling the truth, yet another consequence of them being friends for this long. His best friend could read him like a book and there was almost no way Ian could get any lies around him.
“Okay that’s fine, I guess I’ll be seeing you at school tomorrow then.”
Much to Ian’s surprise however, he didn’t say anything about it and instead just carried on as if he’d just believed Ian’s blatant lie. A lie that was told to in a pitiful attempt to further distance himself from an uncomfortable situation.
“Bye dude, see you soon.” Murmured Ian as he turned to walk out of Anthony’s room.
However, just as Ian was leaving Anthony’s house, he felt a familiar hand brush up against his side. He looked around to see for certain who it was and of course, it was his best friend, who looked like a statue with how stiff his body looked as he stood behind him near the doorway.
“Uh, what is it man?” Ian asked softly with a hint of confusion in his voice.
Anthony initially didn’t respond to the question, but he was staring at Ian like he really wanted to say something, but he just couldn’t no matter how hard he tried.
Ian had to admit, he liked having this moment to stare at his gorgeous friend’s slightly freckled face like this and he even finds it a bit hard to look away. There was a reason why Anthony got so many girls after all, and Ian can totally see why he’s never been rejected by any of them - although this is different as him and Anthony were both dudes, so this time will likely be the exception.
“Just go now, don’t worry about me, it’s nothing.” Anthony finally replied after a few seconds, his voice sounding quiet and slightly strained, like he would emotionally break if he spoke any louder.
Ian knew that something was up, but he didn’t enquire further as he left Anthony’s house for real this time, his head full of worries about whether this means that Anthony hates him now or if their friendship will be unsalvageable and his stomach churns at the thought of those things. The idea of losing Anthony was honestly unbearable for him as he cannot imagine his life without him, but he cannot dwell on this concoction of emotions forever, he’ll get over this eventually. He will move on and forget about this soon.
~~~~~~~~
Despite how much he wants to forget that night, he just couldn’t.
The feeling of Anthony’s warm and soft lips on his was just too vivid of a memory to ever get out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried to block it out. He attempts to convince himself that maybe he only liked that kiss because Anthony could’ve just subconsciously reminded him of some girl in his class that he thought was pretty, but he didn’t feel nearly as much towards that girl as he did towards Anthony, which was a problem since Anthony is his best friend who is also male. He shouldn’t be feeling like this towards him at all, everything about this feels so, so wrong but at the same time, a small part of it feels kinda… right somehow?
He has been friends with Anthony for years at this point and he would really hate to jeopardise the friendship that he has with him over some stupid and illogical feelings, so he went on to always ignore it.
Always ignore how his heart fluttered whenever he made Anthony laugh, always ignore how beautiful he secretly thought Anthony was, always ignore how he often felt as if he was the happiest person in the world when he was around him.
He and Anthony made a silent agreement to never speak about “that night” as Ian had dubbed it in his head. They just carried on with their friendship as usual, as if the whole thing just never happened.
Ian is pretty grateful that Anthony didn’t just abandon him in disgust as a result of that incident, so at least he can still relish in their friendship for now - although he still fears that the day will come where Anthony would just stop talking to him forever or something.
He also strongly believed that there was just no way that Anthony would ever like him back. He was always dating girls seemingly every other day so it would be really delusional of him to ever think that there would be the slightest possibility of his best friend ever reciprocating his feelings, so he might as well try his best to let go of that small and freakish part of himself that hopes that Anthony feels the same way.
He did eventually receive the audio files of the voiceovers for their flash animation from Anthony a few days later. He decided to just name the flash after the main character of it for simplicities sake. He added the voiceovers and the credits into it (with the credits including Anthony) and then he posted the finished project onto the Smosh website and newgrounds.
Luckily for Ian, most people liked the video and thought it was funny, including Anthony who praised him and told him that it had made him laugh a lot, which made Ian feel warm and fuzzy even though he didn’t think he deserved to be complimented by someone who was far better at technical stuff than he was.
Although some of the criticism from a few people over on newgrounds was more negative in comparison, at least it served as a temporary distraction from what was taking up most of Ian’s brain: his feelings towards his best friend that seemed to always haunt him no matter how much he attempted to bury them or make up increasingly ridiculous “hetero” explanations for them.
Anthony has always made him feel something that he never has for anyone else before, a feeling that he couldn’t quite name for the longest time, And now that he has figured out the true nature of this feeling, it scared him.
It scared him how much he adored Anthony, how much he loved to spend time with him, and how much he truthfully loved the feeling of his best friend’s lips on his despite how much his brain frantically tries to tell him that he shouldn’t be feeling this way, but he still did. He always did.
And that feeling will be staying with him forever.