Work Text:
“Okay so,” Gold said, loudly, as he lounged on Crystal’s bed, hugging a pillow. “Simone was like, ‘I think you’re gay’ and I honestly dunno what the fuck! What the fuck, Crys?”
“Clearly,” Crystal replied, “she thinks you’re gay.”
“But I’m not, so what’s the deal, man?”
“I don’t know.” Crystal swivelled coolly in her desk chair and asked, “Which one was Simone?”
“Uhm, y’know, Trainer from Goldenrod, really funny in this dry kinda way --”
“With redhair and a temper, right, got it,” Crystal interrupted. “Or, wait, no, wasn’t that Alice?”
“Um.”
“Or, no, maybe Jackie!”
“What’re you -- look, I have a type, so what! You’re trying to read into it like a weirdo, right? So, what’s your point, huh?”
“Maybe you should stop looking for Silver substitutes and just date Silver,” Crystal said.
“Silver isn’t gay!” Gold cried.
Crystal snorted. “Silver’s so gay my dad doesn’t have any issues letting him sleepover, in my bedroom.”
Gold, having spent several minutes being suspiciously glared at by Crystal’s father while trying to come up to talk to her, found this double WTF.
“But, Silv’s -- so --”
“Gay. So gay. Extremely gay. Ultra gay. So, so, so gay.”
“Nuh-uh, and even if he was, I don’t like boys!”
Crystal looked like she was going to say something long and annoying, but instead, she turned away again and said, “Okay. I guess you’d know.”
Huffing, Gold stood up, tossing her pillow aside. “I’m leaving.”
“Oh, yeah,” Crystal said, “wouldn’t want to be late for watching children’s cartoons with Silver.”
Gold picked up the pillow again and threw it at her. Crystal just cackled.
As he walked home, Gold couldn’t help thinking about it. It being Silver. It being much more specifically, well, doing stuff, with Silver.
Okay, so, Gold had had the thoughts. And the dreams. He couldn’t help it! It was natural, anyway: Silver was pretty. Really, really pretty. It’d be weird not to have thought about it. ...right?
Not everybody thought Silver was pretty. Gold remembered being shocked when he found that out from some snide Green Oak remark. But Silver was so breathtakingly hot it made Gold’s heart ache. Amongst other things, apparently, not that he was thinking about that.
Silver had already broken in through Gold’s bedroom window and was sitting on his floor, watching Proteam Omega. He must’ve been every episode a million times but something about the stupid cartoon always made Silver excited and cute and -- no homo, right, Gold reminded him.
“Hey,” Gold said, sitting down next to Silver. Not too close.
“Shut up,” Silver replied, “this bit’s good.”
To Silver, every bit of Proteam Omega was good.
Silver was gay. So, so gay. Apparently. Probably. It kept eating away at Gold. So much so, in the credits, he blurted out: “Crys said -- are you gay?”
Silver was incredulous as hell yet he still said, “Yup.”
Gold felt a rush of -- of something.
Silver asked, “Why? Is that gonna be a problem?”
“No no no no! Of course not! It’s just, Crys said, and I didn’t know if I should believe it, and I --”
I wish I could be as strong as you, Gold thought, suddenly. He quickly buried it.
“...and I wanted to make sure. Even if she doesn’t really lie much.”
“Okay,” Silver said. Tension started leaving his body, and Gold thought about his neck.
Shouldn't he have been more upset about being dumped by yet another sexy redhead girlfriend? Crystal was right, wasn't she, shit, she was always right, gross.
Gold waited for enough time to pass for the two conversation points to not be linked (so, after about two episodes of Silver’s stupid cartoon) and then said, as casually as he could, “I’m gonna, go do some training for a while. In the mountains probably.”
“Okay,” Silver said. “Gimme a key to your house.”
“Why bother, you break in anyway.”
“In case your mum asks.”
“Fine,” Gold sighed. “But if you really want to be romantic, you should come find me.”
Romantic. The usual hyperbolic word choice, and Silver laughed (a little), and Gold watched him a little too closely and realised, he’d always been watching for Silver’s reaction. And how much it meant to make Silver laugh (even a little) was way, way too much, it made his chest hurt, and it made him want to stay with Silver forever.
Shit he was so, so gay for Silver.
But he had to go. To train himself. So he could be strong enough for Silver.
Gold watched as Silver’s (little) laugh became a (little) smile and knew, as he’d known from the moment he’d first been dragged into a fight with some jerk-ass loser thief, that Silver would always be worth it.