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Contrary to Rocket’s opinions, Sword is not a complete goody-two-shoes.
Yes, sure, he may be a little bit more prone to listening to adults than Rocket would’ve liked, but Rocket also doesn’t have a deity as a father, so Sword thinks he isn’t completely to blame here.
“C’mon! You’re such a wuss sometimes!” Is what Rocket would say when Sword said he couldn’t go stay at his house, or go to the slightly sketchy gig happening in one of the lower rings of Crossroads and he really wanted to go.
And, although he knows Rocket means it all in good nature, it’s a bit annoying.
Okay- it’s really annoying.
Because, well- Rocket is right. Sword is a little bit of a wuss.
But it’s for good reason! He doesn’t want to get in trouble with Venomshank, because that just means more time locked up in the house, cleaning up Sisyphus’s feathers, which get everywhere.
Yes, Sword loves the bird. No, he does not like cleaning up feathers.
Now, what does this have to do with Sword not being a complete goody-two-shoes?
Well- for about a week, now, Zuka’s been staying late at the shop, mostly due to an unusual influx of customers. And, also, Venomshank’s been doing whatever godly deities do, so his house is pretty empty.
So, of course, the most reasonable thing to do is to spam Sword’s phone and beg him to let him sneak over and hang out for the night.
(Which, let him be clear- is not a reasonable thing to do, nor is it a good influence.)
ROCKET!!!! 11:23 PM
cmonnnn
wahts so bad abt it
??
Sword 11:23 PM
I don’t want to get in trouble
If I get caught I get grounded
And also you get in trouble too
I don’t want you to get in trouble
ROCKET!!!! 11:24 PM
aww
how heoric of you
look ill be gonebefore venomshank get shome
its fine
ive done this plenty of times before
Sword 11:25 PM
Are you sure??
ROCKET!!!! 11:25 PM
yes sword im positive
justhis oonncee dude
Sword groans. This is pretty clearly an uphill battle, and Sword’s not gonna be able to win it anytime soon.
Sword 11:26 PM
Okay fine
But be careful
ROCKET!!!! 11:26 PM
yes yes i know
ill be fine
Sword turns his phone off and sighs. Yeah, okay, maybe he really wants to hang out with Rocket, but he also really wants to not get in trouble. Sword hates when Venomshank is mad at him.
Sword figures that he might as well prepare a snack - not because the walk between Sword and Rocket’s houses is far or anything, but because Rocket is greedy and always asks (or just blatantly steals) Sword’s food whenever he’s over.
One of the many things Rocket introduced him to when they first met was the concept of chocolate in popcorn. Sure, Sword loved chocolate and loved popcorn, but he’d never really considered the concept of putting the two together.
Rocket, on the other hand? This guy was probably the biggest chocolate-and-popcorn fiend in all of the Inpherno. It even got to the point where Sword has a secret stash just for Rocket, because he knows Rocket loves the stuff.
Sword grabs a popcorn bag out of the pantry and tosses it into the microwave, setting the electronic timer to a minute before searching for what Rocket called “the best thing in the entire world”.
What was that thing, you might ask?
A box of M&M’s.
What you’re meant to do is pour a handful of the M&M’s into the popcorn, let them melt from the heat, and eat it like that, but most of the time, Sword ends up eating half of the M&M’s before he can even add them in.
Sword pops a few of the chocolates into his mouth before grabbing a large metal bowl in preparation for the popcorn, and then pops a few more. Just for good measure.
The bag finishes popping a few moments later, and Sword quickly pulls the bag open and lets the buttery popcorn fall into the bowl before he adds in the M&M’s.
Sword ends up having to restrain himself from eating more of the chocolate and the first bites of popcorn and forces himself to wait until Rocket comes.
So he waits.
It feels like an eternity, but by the time he hears the familiar taps of Rocket’s fingers against his bedroom window, it’s really only been ten minutes. Sword doesn’t really know how anyone can get ten minutes to feel so long.
Sword walks over and hefts the window open, grinning once he sees Rocket’s form standing outside, and tugging him closer before wrapping his arms around him in a hug.
“Jeez, dude, you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in fucking forever,” Rocket huffs before eventually returning the hug. “I didn’t know you missed me that badly. I never thought you were so desperate.”
“I’m not desperate!” Sword protests. “Is it so bad that I hug you?”
Rocket rolls his eyes. “Yeah, actually, it is,” he says jokingly, elbowing Sword before he shimmies his way out of the window and fully into Sword’s bedroom. “It smells like popcorn in here.”
“Oh, yeah, I made you chocolate popcorn! I saw we had the stuff and I figured we could snack on it.”
“Sword,” Rocket begins, placing a hand on Sword’s back, “you are quite possibly the best fucking person in the entire Inpherno.”
Rocket makes a beeline for the bowl of popcorn and digs in before Sword can even bring it to the living room or grab napkins or anything. Which- honestly, he should’ve expected of Rocket, with how much he knows he loves it.
The two of them settle down onto the floor right beside the couch, placing the bowl in between them while Sword grabs blankets and pillows for them to relax on. He’ll make them look like Rocket wasn’t even here later on.
“So, whaddya wanna do?” Rocket asks, his entire mouth full of popcorn.
“Uhh, I dunno,” Sword replies helpfully.
Rocket scoffs at him. “Uh, I dunno,” he mocks in a tone that sounds nothing like Sword.
“You were the one who wanted to come over!” He accuses, snatching a few pieces of particularly chocolatey popcorn before Rocket can get to them.
“Touché.” Rocket hums while he eats his popcorn. “Here, why don’t we play truth or dare?”
Sword frowns. “Isn’t that game more fun with, like- a lot of people?”
“Well, yeah, but we don’t have a lot of people, dumbass. Unless you wanna include Sisyphus, or somethin’.”
He laughs at the thought. “Okay, fine, whatever. You go first, then.”
Rocket grabs a handful of popcorn and tips his head back as he shoves it all into his mouth. “Truth or dare?”
“..truth,” Sword says after a moment of consideration.
“Ugh, you’re so boring! Everyone picks truth.”
“What dares could you possibly have me do in here?”
Rocket puts a finger to his chin, as if pondering. “Huh. Well, I could make you scream ‘I’m a giant dork’ out of your window, if that’s what you mean. But I’m pretty sure the entire city knows already, so I guess we can’t do that one.”
Sword reaches over and whacks Rocket’s arm away from the bowl, snatching up popcorn as quickly as possible before Rocket can react.
Sword pops the pieces innocently into his mouth while Rocket stares at him, baffled.
“C’mon, I’m waiting for my question,” Sword says.
“Do you..” Rocket takes a dramatic pause. “..have a crush?”
“That’s the most boring question ever! You know I don’t!”
“Uh-huh. Sounds suspicious," the blue-horned Inphernal notes while squinting his eyes at him. “Nobody at all? What, are you out of everyone’s league, or something?”
“No! Why are you so worried about who my crush is?”
“Because everyone has a crush,” Rocket says with a mildly annoying know-it-all tone.
Sword furrows his brows. “That means you have one.”
Rocket’s eyes widen as he realizes his error, but then quickly cracks a grin to cover it up, which Sword finds immensely suspicious. “Maybe I do. Who knows?”
Sword stares at Rocket for a couple seconds. He doesn’t seem to be joking, but Sword knows well enough that Rocket would just say things to throw Sword off for fun.
And, well- he doesn’t really know why, but thinking about Rocket having a crush on someone makes his stomach twist.
Which is crazy. Sword’s not jealous, or anything. Rocket’s his friend! He’s happy for him if he finds someone that he likes, because that’s what friends do.
Yup. Totally not jealous Sword, over here.
“Tell me who it is!” Sword begs, ignoring the growing twist in his stomach. “I wanna know!”
“Sword, you’ve got, like, two friends,” Rocket replies, earning a sound of betrayal from Sword. “Why do you care who I like?”
Why does he care? “If I’ve only got two friends, then I won’t know who your crush is, anyways! It’s not like I’m gonna search all of Crossroads to see.”
“Is that so? ‘Cause you’re looking pretty red right now.”
“I am not red!”
Rocket smiles knowingly- it’s actually the same smile that Medkit sometimes gives him when he talks about Rocket, which is kind of stupid, because what is that even supposed to mean? “Right, right. Are you sure you’re not jealous of who my crush is?”
“No!” Sword replies, a little too quickly. “I just wanna know!”
“Nnnnope. Sorry, man, not happening.”
The conversation eventually moves on from the topic of crushes, and they end up not asking each other any sort of dares, but rather just random questions (and a few rather inappropriate ones coming from Rocket).
And the whole time, Sword can’t take his mind off the fact that Rocket said he was red. He wasn’t actually red, surely. Rocket was just doing his usual friendly teasing, like always.
..alright. Maybe he was a little red. He did feel his face go warm. But it was not because of Rocket.
And, no, Sword is not jealous of whoever Rocket’s supposed crush might be. In fact, he should just stop thinking about it all together, because he is not jealous.
“Uh- Sword?” Rocket eventually says, snapping him out of his thoughts. “You’re- kinda staring. Really fucking staring.”
Sword blinks a few times and smiles sheepishly, knowing how much Rocket hates being stared at. “Oh, sorry. I was just thinking about something.”
“Thinking about what, hm?” Rocket asks teasingly, leaning forward with an intrigued expression on his face.
And for some weird reason, Rocket leaning forward and looking at him like that makes his stomach fill with butterflies.
“Ah- nothing important,” Sword says, trying to laugh it off.
“Nnno, you’re red again,” Rocket points out. “Wow, Sword, what could you possibly be thinking about to get you so red?”
Sword is now starting to feel a little bit too flustered for his own comfort, which is really, really weird. Rocket isn’t supposed to be flustering him. Sword isn’t even the type of guy to get flustered easily, he’s pretty sure!
“I-”
“C’mon, Sword, tell me,” Rocket edges on. Sword can feel his face getting warmer by the second, and by now, even he can’t deny that he’s definitely red. “If you wanna kiss me, just say it.”
Sword’s entire brain slams to a halt. “What?”
Rocket - who has really pretty eyes, now that they’re closer than before (why is he so close?) - snickers at him. “Whaaat? The way you’re acting right now, it’s pretty obvious.”
“It is not obvious! I- what??”
The other Inphernal pauses for a few seconds before pushing the now long-forgotten bowl of popcorn away and practically climbing on top of Sword, with Sword having to use his arms to keep himself from falling over.
Sword, despite having just been admiring Rocket’s pretty eyes a few seconds ago, now can’t do anything but look at Rocket, his face so warm he feels like it’s going to start melting his skin.
“Sword, look at me,” Rocket says with a certain tone in his voice that Sword can’t place.
Sword does as he asks and looks at him. Despite Rocket’s averseness to eye contact, they both stare at each other for a few long, tantalizing moments.
Sword, being the absolute idiot he is, closes the distance between them and kisses him.
The entire world seems to take a breath in as Rocket freezes.
And then Rocket puts his hands on Sword’s cheeks and helps fix the angle of his face, and oh my Swords, Sword is kissing Rocket.
He kissed Rocket. He’s kissing Rocket.
And only now does the realization dawn on him that the reason he was jealous of Rocket’s entire crush was because Sword liked Rocket.
He wants to facepalm and wonder why it took him so long to figure that out, because in retrospect, it’s quite possibly the most obvious thing in the entire world.
Sword pulls away, laughing nervously. “I- sorry, oh my gods, that was so random and weird and I bet you probably thought that was so bad and disgusting and you never want to go near me again and that it was super embarrassing and that-”
“Sword.”
“Gods, why did I do that? Swords above, I’m such an idiot, and now you’re gonna tell everyone about how much of a weirdo I am and-”
“Sword.”
Rocket grabs Sword’s shirt collar and before Sword can react or think or do anything, Rocket is kissing him.
Oh.
Oh.
Rocket is kissing him, now.
Rocket is kissing him.
He doesn’t know why this time around, the revelation and the gravity of the whole time seems to strike him ten times harder, but it does, and Sword can’t even think or do anything and simply lets Rocket do whatever he wants with him.
Rocket pulls away for a second to catch his breath before connecting again, and everything is in a haze of pleasure as Rocket’s tongue presses behind his teeth.
Sword doesn’t fight it, and soon he tastes Rocket’s saliva in his mouth- and while at first it is a little nasty, Sword finds that he doesn’t particularly care, because it’s Rocket and he loves Rocket.
Sword quietly readjusts his position, moving so that instead of being on top of him, Rocket is straddling his waist while he sits so that his hands are free.
He runs his hands across Rocket’s side before leaving them by his hips, and the kiss only lasts a little while longer while Rocket pulls away and wipes the saliva from both his and Sword’s mouths.
“I guess that’s another way to shut you up, now,” Rocket says breathlessly.
“Wh- what about your crush?” Sword asks.
Rocket groans. “You absolute idiot. You are my crush.”
Oh.
That makes a lot of sense.
Sword stares blankly at Rocket while he tries to create some semblance of coherent thought in his brain. “You’re- really good at that,” he says after a moment.
“Mm, really? I’m flattered,” Rocket replies, leaning down again and giving Sword another smaller, gentler kiss, his lips lingering by his for a heartbeat. “Here, why don’t we clean up the popcorn and then go hang out in your bed? It’s way more comfortable.”
Sword blinks. “But- your dad- and mine-”
“It’ll be fine,” the other Inphernal says. “We’ll figure something out.”
He nods, dazed, before he picks up the bowl and tosses the remaining kernels out before placing the bowl in the sink while Rocket tidies up the blankets and pillows.
Sword is still reeling from the fact that that just happened, but he really doesn’t have any time to process it thoroughly before he’s laying down in bed next to Rocket.
Rocket turns to face him, laying on his side. “You’re such a dork, did you know that?”
“I don’t think- I don’t think people call people they’ve just kissed dorks,” Sword replies with a laugh.
“Oh, well, I make the rules, and I say they do.”
They fall into comfortable silence again before Sword speaks up.
“I- um, I really, really like you, Rocket,” he starts, “as you can- probably tell. From all that. And- well- could we maybe- date? Like. Y’know? Boyfriend and boyfriend.”
Rocket smiles softly. “I really, really like you, too, Sword. I’d like that.”
Sword reaches out and pulls Rocket closer to him, closer than he’d ever held Rocket before.
Sword leans over and gives Rocket a gentle kiss on the forehead before settling back down, and before he knows it, he’s getting drowsy.
“I love you a lot,” Sword mumbles sleepily.
“I love you a lot, too, Sword.”