Archive of Our Own

︎ㅤᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃MADI.ִֶָ𓂃ᥫ᭡

That day was supposed to be normal, but annoyingly, it was far, far from it. Unexpected, surprising, and unusual were all the perfect words to describe how he felt when he first saw it. He froze, in utter disbelief. If he asked himself on that day if he ever expected everything to play out for the best, he knows he would surely say ‘Never, not in a million years,’ but now, everything was different, better! But different. And he can't deny but instead admit that he quite liked it, it seems like change is a lot better than what he had first expected. 

︎

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Madi had woken up too early, he knew because his alarm hadn’t startled him awake. He groans as he stretches and checks his phone, ‘Damn,’ he mutters aloud, he looked over at his apps, his messages, his insta, his TikTok all had over a hundred of notifications. Did he do something? Madi shakes his head, he opens his chat from his best friend, Reem, wondering what all the commotion was about and why he was suddenly so popular.

The series of texts sent by his close friend were chaotic and frantic, like there was a big joke that everyone else knew but him. He was half-asleep and he honestly just wanted to go back to his slumber, maybe wake up and realise that this was all a dream. 

Reem’s last text was him asking Madi to quickly go check TikTok and search up his name with Ray’s, that the whole thing was bizarre and that he had a lot of explaining to do, his texts seem lighthearted so it can’t be that bad… right? Madi sighs, he ignores everything else, the current hysteria, and his mind was now on Ray, and why this whole moment circled around Ray and him. 

Madi groans, longing to go back to sleep but he couldn’t lie and say that he wasn’t curious, what moment with Ray and him could even go so viral? He thinks for a second, trying to jog back his memory but there was nothing. Nothing weird and extreme had happened between him and Ray, well, he thinks.

He clicks at Ray’s messages before having to deal with the wrath of social media, he could see that the rest of the Clover Boyz had messaged him - probably about this weird incident going on - and many of his other friends. But nothing else even mattered, this was about him and Ray, so his focus should be on Ray and what the hell was going on.

Ray didn’t message him anything, which was a surprise cause recently they had been texting a lot more, it just happens naturally when you become closer to a friend, and they weren’t just friends - they were best friends now. Madi notices that Ray had called him two times just less than an hour ago, he rolls his eyes, why couldn’t Ray just have texted him? He decides not to call him back; he had the deal with the media first. 

He had walked to his bathroom to brush his teeth, phone in hand, he opens TikTok and the notifications were clearly a lot more than his usual, yeah, something was up. Just like Reem had told him to he searched up his name with Ray. And low and behold an edit, Madi had edits of him before, but these were usually just him, centred only around him, not him with someone else, and the edit had gone mega viral with over 200k likes, no edit of just him had reached such an amount. 

‘What the actual fuck..’ Madi thinks, his head now running wild. He watches it over, and over. And all he does is laugh, awkwardly. No one was here with him, he was alone, but laughing seemed like the only appropriate reaction, this was all just a joke. The edit wasn’t bad and no wonder it had went viral, what was he and Ray even doing and why does he barely remembering any these moments being so, romantic?

This wasn’t a big deal, Madi knew that him and Ray were just friends and in hindsight that was all that even mattered, how he felt about Ray and how the other felt about him. He reposts and likes the TikTok, it wasn’t like it was negative and the comments, even though theorising about him and Ray’s personal relationship were joking and positive. He just needed to make sure that him and Ray were still chill, address it on stream as just a joke and probably, just maybe, get a bit of clout from it. This whole situation did cause him an explosion of more followers; him and Ray could really play into this.

He brushes his teeth, takes a shower, and gets ready for the day. As he freshens up he drifts back to his phone, Ray still hadn’t messaged him, he was in Taiwan, with his family, this was just a funny moment and Madi wasn’t his priority, he was just a friend that was in a very goofy predicament with him.

So, he takes it upon himself to text him instead.

⌯⌲ HEY RAY       

⌯⌲HAVE U SEEN THE EDITS OF US?!?

⌯⌲THEY RLLY THINK WE’RE TOGETHER 

He hopes he’s not overdoing it with the cap locks and emojis, but then again, why would it matter, why should he care so much about how Ray perceives him?

It doesn’t take too long for Ray to reply back, it was nothing of substance though, it was just a bunch of laughing emojis paired with the two-men kissing emoji. At least Ray wasn’t making it a big deal, he wonders why he thought it would be so much deeper, like Ray was going to go all technical with him, he’s happy that he was wrong. If he finds it funny, and Ray finds it hilarious, nothing else should matter.

It had been about two-weeks since that edit was uploaded and many others came, all getting thousands of likes and a lot more useless and downright creepy pinions about him and his relationship with Ray. He and Ray had both decided to just repost and like every edit, just for fun, though Ray did tell him that this would cause more rumours it didn’t really matter, the edits were good and Madi was more popular, the only con was that people actually thought him and Ray were together when they were just friends, and happy to stay that way. 

Ray was still in Taiwan, a time to spend back home with his family but also time to fix issues with his visa, Ray had reassured his friends and fans that everything was working out, he hopes so, Ray was his best friend and he wouldn’t like having to book over $500 flights just to see him in person, he doesn’t even know how he lasted these two weeks without having him by his side.

“Madi,” He was in the Clover Boyz house, Punga, Reggie and Dez where away, and he was just having lunch with Kaleel and Tylil, Tylil being chill enough to use his money to order a platter of food for the three of them, Rakai was wherever and Reem was to busy doing whatever shenanigans he’s always up to, “I got a text from Ray.”

Madi eyes widen, “Ray?”

“Yeah, you mans,” Madi rolls his eyes which lets out a little chuckle from Tylil, “He’s telling me to tell ya’ll that’s he’s coming back this Saturday and that none of us has better not messed up his room.” Kaleel laughs knowing that Rakai had definitely did not abide to such rule. 

But Madi stays silent looking like he was trying to find the right words, Tylil quickly notices, “Are you okay bro?”

“What?” Madi looks at his friend confused.

Tylil laughs, “What do you mean ‘what’? You looked like you had a bunch of Rakai’s running throughout you head man.” 

“It’s nothing man, just tell Ray that we miss him.”

Kaleel jumps in, “That sounds really zesty Madi, maybe them ship edits are right.” Kaleel jokes, but Madi doesn’t take it as such.

“Well, good for you they’re not!” He adds.

Kaleel looks confused, “ I’m just joking man, no need to be so defensive.” 

“Maybe I just don’t like what you’re trying to insinuate.” He says irritated, Kaleel was his friend, he would never voluntarily piss him off but he wasn’t going to act like he was not getting on his damn nerves. 

“If what I’m ‘insinuating’ gets you so mad then maybe what I’m saying is true.” Kaleel replies.

“Guys, stop, let’s just eat.” Tylil says, trying to keep the peace between Madi and Kaleel.

Kaleel and Tylil both go back to eating, silence filling the air, but Madi’s thoughts still lingered, not just on what just happened but why it did, was Madi becoming obsessed with Ray or something? Or maybe he is secretly a zest fest that is in love with Ray like everyone is claiming he is, including one of his own friends. 

Madi quickly loses his appetite not wanting to take a single bite of the wing that was in front of him, “Guys, I’m not hungry.” He tells the pair and they both look at him in concern.

“Really?” Tylil says, and Madi nods, “If you say so then.” Tylil shrugs, but it was clear that he wondered what was going up with his friends. Kaleel and Tylil give each other a look as Madi leaves the dining area.

“Why would you say that?!” Tylil chastised, “You know what’s going on.”

“I was just joking with the n*, I didn’t think he would take it so seriously.” Kaleel exasperates, he knew he hurt his friend but at the same time he felt like he didn’t even do anything wrong, “So what, you want me to apologise?”

Tylil sighs, “No, I just don’t want you to bring it up again, especially in front of him.”

Kaleel laughs, “He literally reposts that shit, he’s not a pussy.” 

“Like I said, leave the man be.” Tylil responds, Kaleel just shrugs his shoulders and goes backs to eating but the whole situation doesn’t leave his mind and why Madi couldn’t of just taken the joke, it was funny and meant nothing, no big deal, so then why was Madi acting like that?

︎˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

They were at the airport to meet Ray. Him, Kaleel, Reem and Rakai. It was a good day, it was bright, warm and it seemed like everyone was in good mood. Rakai was setting up with his cameraman to stream and all his friends were chatting together and making funny jokes.

“Madi, you excited?” Reem banters with a grin on his face.

“You want me to tell the truth?” He smirks and Reem answers with a chuckle.

“Yep.”

“Ready to get some play tonight, man.” Reem lets out a storm of laugh and Madi just giggles after, he wasn’t gay, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed to make gay jokes.

Kaleel walks up to them, “So, you’re allowed to say gay jokes but I’m not?” He questions.

“The difference Kaleel is that you’re making jokes about me, and I’m making jokes about myself.”

“Yeah, right,” Kaleel replies, “If you say so, Madi.”

Madi rolls his eyes, why should he care about what his friends think he is, the only person that knows who he is, is his own damn self, and he knows that he likes girls and that gay jokes are funny. That’s it.

“Yeah, Madi, why you keep reposting that shit in the first place?” Reem asks him.

“The edits are good that’s why, it’s giving me more views and Ray agreed that there is a lot we could gain from it.”

“So, y’all are clout chasers?” Kaleel murmurs.

“And what’s wrong with that, don’t act like you wouldn’t either.”

“Well, if you hate the gay rumours so much giving them so much ammo doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t matter if it doesn’t make sense to you because what matters to me is that-“

“Guys that’s Ray!” Rakai shouts pointing to the figure walking up to them with a large suitcase, Rakai quickly runs up to Ray while his cameraman tries to keep up, “Yo, chat! Ray’s back!” Rakai welcomes his friend back in the states with a hug and Ray looks like a sudden wave of relief just hit him, “Those visa struggles have tore my man up!“ Rakai jokes, noticing Ray’s eye bags.

Ray laughs, “Nah, just jet lag guys.“ He answers with a grin, Madi could clearly see how happy Ray was to be back with all his friends again, and Madi was glad too, he missed his friend just like everyone else around him also missed Ray. His humour, his laugh, his smile, his lips-

“Madi, y-y-youre not going to greet Ray too?!“ Rakai stammers, and for some reason Madi hesitates. He knows this moment is going to be in another hundred edits, he hadn’t seen Ray in person for weeks, he missed him. And he doesn’t know how many times he had said it or just thought it, but his heart ached for his missing piece, his heart ached because of Ray.

Madi shakes his head and walked up and pulled Ray into a deep hug, and Ray hugs him back, clinging to his touch. Now it was probably going to be millions of edits instead, “You missed me so bad, Madi?” Ray laughs but the awkward feeling lingered, did Madi do too much?

He hears giggles from the background from Rakai and he looks back, “This n* just wants edits of him, man.“ And his other friends agree, but Madi didn’t embrace Ray due to attention, even though he told his friends that, even though he convinced himself that’s why, he embraced Ray because something fresh and unreal is blossoming inside his heart.

“Roses?”

“Huh?”

“No, a bouquet.”

“What?”

Reem laughs, “Not for you, Madi, we’re wondering if we should get our boy Ray something nice because of his travels.”

“Oh, yeah..”

“You sure your good man?” Reem asks concerned, “You’re acting weird.”

“Why a bouquet?” He questions, what happened to just going out to eat, getting them a little a present, isn’t a bouquet a bit too much of a gift for a friend?” 

“What, a bit too romantic for you, or is that shit just for you and him?”

Madi scoffs, “Shut up.”

ᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃RAY.ִֶָ𓂃ᥫ᭡.ִֶ

 Back in the states once again. Ray had missed this, his friends, his fans, all of it. Even though he did go back to Taiwan to deal with the issues with his Visa the time spent with his family and childhood friends were really well spent and he didn’t know how much he actually missed all of them until he had landed back to his home country. 

He remembers that he was in Taiwan when that edit went viral, he was just scrolling on TikTok like he usually does, then he saw it. It was odd. Cute, sure. Funny, yeah. Odd, odd. He didn’t know how he felt seeing it. It was like he watching someone controlling him doing zesty shit, but in reality it was just him and Madi. It was their usual jokes but seeing it from this point of view made it a lot more… sus. 

“Damn,” He mutters to himself, “Shit.” The first thing he does is try to call Madi but he doesn’t pick up, they were in different time zones so it made sense, he tries to call him one more time but as he doesn’t pick up he decides to give up on it. He groans, he’ll probably call Kai and joke with the rest of the Clover Boyz about this later. He’ll probably-

“How was Taiwan?”

Ray blinks and he sees Reggie in front of him while he was on the couch, “You unpacked everything yet bro, or do you need some help?”

“Nah, it’s okay Reggie. I was planning to do that on stream later.” He replies.

“Ah, okay. You just seemed like you had a lot on your mind.”

‘“It’s nothing bro, just tired, long flight.” He explains to the short man, Reggie accepts the answer and walks away and Ray lets out a long sigh. He needed to have a nap before he could even think of starting up his stream.

Someone else walks in. 

“You okay, man?”

Ray looks up, “Madi.”

Madi laughs, “Yeah, Madi,” The taller boy looks at Ray’s exhausted state and starts to feel bad for him, “You good man?”

The tone of Madi’s voice was ridden with concern and for some reason it felt like a bee sting to his heart, everyone was asking if he was okay today, if he was good, but when Madi asked it was for some reason a lot more… what’s the word? He contemplates, just different, Madi was just different to him and he didn’t know why, and it was getting on his nerves. 

“Bro, I’m fine. Why is everyone asking me if I’m okay?!” He exclaims annoyed, and Madi just laughs, and Ray wasn’t even trying to be funny. Ray huffs, “Leave me alone Madi, I’m tired.” Ray lays on the sofa grabbing the blanket as he lays on the side. 

“I thought you said you were going to stream tonight?” Madi asks.

“I’ll wake up before, no alarm needed.” Ray knows that Madi doesn’t believe him as he shoots him an unimpressed look. Madi doesn’t move and Ray wasn’t even going to say anything until he sees Madi’s pouty look, he was already cuddled up on the couch by himself, he huffs, “You wanna join me or not?” He suggests.

Madi’s confused look turns into a grin as he quickly cuddles up next to him throwing the blanket on top of them, “Y’know once any of the other boys catch us we’ll never hear the day of it, Madi.” He complains, but it falls on deaf ears as Madi had already became too comfortable and too close as there were now in soft proximity of each other. 

“If that mattered then you wouldn’t allowed me to be next to you Ray.” And Ray has no rebuttal, because he didn’t hate how him and Madi were now bundled up together, yeah. It was a bit uncomfortable, but it was warm and soothing, “This will help you with your nap Ray and I’ll be able to wake you up when you need to prepare for your stream.” Ray notices as Madi gets comfortable with the closeness between him and Ray, his eyes on Madi as the other man quickly drifts off to sleep. 

Ray snorts, he was the tired one and he didn’t fall asleep first. He wonders for second how would Madi even be able to wake him up in time when he’d be fast asleep too, but then he notices Madi’s hand peaking out of his blanket and that his smart watch was on, and oh. Well, at least that was sorted.

It doesn’t take long for Ray to start drifting asleep too, his face was barely an inch from Madi’s, the comfort, the warmth made it so easy for Ray to drift off, embracing and cuddling his best friend.

It hadn’t even been an hour until they were forcefully waken up by the sound of Reem’s clamorous voice, “AYOOO!”

Ray quickly wakes up as Madi yawns himself up, Ray can’t help but find Madi’s drowsy face cute and soft. 

His thoughts were clearly cut off as he turns to Reem who looked at the pair in utter shock, “So y’all weren’t joking, you guys are gay for real.” Reem had a look of disbelief on his face at seeing his two friends cuddling ogether. 

“You never cuddled your homie gang?” Madi adds tired, trying to defend him and Ray while he was clearly still half asleep. 

“Yeah but not like that! Y’all faces so close it seemed like you guys were kissing.” 

“And what if we were?!” Ray refutes.

“We were not!” Madi exclaims, he turns to Ray and he looks at him like what he said was completely out of the ordinary, yeah. What if they were gay and dating each other? Why would that matter to Reem or anyone else, they know they’re not but if they were why should it matter to the rest of their friends.

Reem just laughs at the pair, “You guys were ‘ayo’ before but now that Ray is back this is just getting mad gay.” 

Ray sits up, “And?”

“Nothing, nothing!” Reem enunciates, “It just looked weird.”

“You’ve done weirder shit.” Madi remarks, he gets up from the couch and directly faces his friend.

“I’m not trying to say anything bruh, I don’t know what happened to you Madi but these days you be take everything seriously.” Reem states.

Madi was about to retaliate but Ray stops him, “Just help me set up the stream.”

Reem watches as Madi and Ray start to walk to his bedroom to set up his monitor to stream, his first official stream after being in Taiwan for almost a month, “Will you guys let me join then?” Reem says jumping up to them.

“Nah,” Madi answers, “You said I changed man.” 

“Well, I wasn’t being serious and two, it’s Ray’s stream not yours, he gets to pick.” Reem turns to Ray, “So?”

Ray sighs, tired of his friend’s antics, “Reem, you can join the stream, but you have to apologise to Madi.”

Reem chuckles, “You can’t be serious.” 

“You wanna join us or not?” Ray deadpans. 

Reem gives in, “Okay, I’m sorry Madi. You’re my bro.” He wraps his hand around Madi’s shoulder, and it causes a weird feeling of jealousy for Ray, odd again. “It was just me trying to be funny.” 

“Apology accepted.”

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚︎

Ray hates the word odd. But for some reason that one word has been seeping through every moment of his life now. Everything has just been odd, he hates it, despises it even. 

It had been over a week since he came back from Taiwan, he had met with Kai, all his friends and had an extremely successful stream welcoming him back. It all seemed well. But for some reason something was wrong, and he thought didn’t know what it was, but he does and there was no need in trying to deny it either.

He first thought it was the edits, he worried at the start that it would ruin his and Madi’s personal relationship with the theories and stuff, Ray wasn’t gay, he had a girlfriend for quite a while that he loved and was attracted to that had just recently broken up with him, but he can’t lie and say he hasn’t been curious for more than just women. Yeah, women were hot. But he started to find that men could be hot too. 

In hindsight, his and Madi’s relationship had not been affected at all, well, not like he had thought it would be. It was less awkward than he had expected, and maybe on the first day it was a bit weird, but it seemed like they had gotten closer, way closer. So close that maybe just being best friends wasn’t the right label for them.

Everything had became weird, and he’d rather everything just became normal, like it was before, that weird ass edit has changed how he felt about Madi, and for some reason it wasn’t for the worse, it was for the better.

Ray had fallen in love with his best friend.

He doesn’t know when or how but he had, and there was no point of denying it either. He knew, and even though he’d rather be in denial about his obvious feelings for the other man there was no point. He was in love with Madi and there was nothing he could do about it.

…Unless, if he acted on it.

He already had, basically. Before he had came to term with it, those feelings were what caused those edits. But now that he knew and if he acted on the feelings that he now understood, then maybe it would be a little different. Maybe this silly game they were playing can flourish intro something else, something intimate. 

He doesn’t think Madi feels the same, he had already told him that it was just all fun and games, Madi’s religion and just what everyone else would think. Yeah, some of the internet would be supportive, they’re the ones that started this shit. But his friends, the Clover Boyz and AMP, the streaming community, his mostly teenage boy fanbase who are all probably homophobic. All these factors just made his predicament even worse and harder to handle.

He thinks back, this wasn’t his first time being shipped with someone, but why did he actually catch feelings this time? Him and Tota, Kai and even Rakai, they were all friends, Ray seems them as his friends, Kai like his mentor, Tota as his close friend from Brazil and Rakai as funny younger brother. Their relationship never changed, why was Madi so different?

“It might be due to the fact that you and Madi are the same age and you both act gayer than gay.” Ray shakes his head from his daydreams, and he realises that he wasn’t in his bed, debating with his brain about his feelings but on stream with Reggie.

Ray laughs awkwardly, “Yeah…”

“If you were going to daydream and ignore me and the chat then you shoulda not came.” Reggie advises, Ray blinks, yeah, he agreed to be on stream with Reggie today. 

“…Shit.” He whispers, “My bad, Reggie,” He pauses, “Where you the one that said that though?” He asks.

Reggie raises his eyebrow, “Said what?” Ray might be hearing things, “Damn, I swear you’ve been acting even weirder lately.” 

Ray makes an excuse, “Lack of sleep lately, man.”

Reggie accepts his answer as he nods and turns back to his chat, the short man goes on about girls, his friends, funny recent moments but Ray’s mind still lingers on Madi.

“Ray!” He jumps, Reggie shakes his head in disapproval and Ray feels the sudden sense of embarrassment, “You sure you’re okay?”

“Like I said, lack of sleep.” Ray looks at Reggie and then the chat but he decided then that it was enough, “I’ll just leave early.”

He stands up and Reggie gives his friend a concerned look, “Hope you feel better later, bro.” 

Ray just walks out of the stream not giving any more comments. He heads to his room but before he gets there, he is stopped by someone.

“Ray, you okay?”

He looks up and it was Madi, the one person that he yearns for even when he wants to be left alone. 

Ray groans, “I’m fine, just needed a break.”

“From Reggie’s stream? I was just about to join you guys.”

Ray thinks, ‘and that would have made the situation even worse.‘

He rolls his eyes which startles Madi, “Leave me alone, Madi. I need to rest.” Though in his heart he knew it was too harsh to tell his friend who was just concerned for him, the friend that he had caught feelings for, he needed a break from everything.

“Oh, okay.” And Madi leaves him be, he walks away to join Reggie’s stream, and Ray just watches like it wasn’t him that asked his friend to leave him be. He sighs as he steps into his room, shuts the door, lays in his bed, spend over thirty minutes replaying his interaction with Madi ridden with regret as he finally drifts off to sleep.

ᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃MADI.ִֶָ𓂃ᥫ᭡.ִֶ

Madi thinks Ray hates him.

The first few days after Ray’s arrival back to Atlanta everything was fine, they were still as close as ever and it didn’t seem like the fans and the theories were getting to them. They streamed together, went out, they were still best friends. However, recently it seemed that Ray was becoming more distant. Like Madi’s presence was annoying and irritating and Madi didn’t understand why? Maybe it was the speculation of their relationship being viewed and critiqued by the world, but it didn’t seem to affect Ray before so why now?

Madi was puzzled and he didn’t have anyone to talk to about it too, he’d seem desperate, like he longed for another man’s attention, the gay rumours would spread even more but he just wanted to know what was up with his best friend and if he did anything wrong to upset him. 

He was hanging out with Rakai for the day; they weren’t streaming and just wanted to go out as friends. They were currently at some random fast-food place that Rakai recommended, the food was good and the vibes were lit.

The energy goes quiet for a second which was weird as every moment with Rakai was usually loud and eventful, he sighs, “Rakai?”

His younger friend takes a bite of his burger then turns to Madi, “You good bro?”

“Don’t talk with your mouth open man.”

“You asked me a question while I’m still eating gang!” Rakai complains, rightfully. Madi just had this question running through his head for a while now and couldn’t keep his thoughts to himself anymore.

“Okay, okay. I gotta ask you a question.” 

Rakai raises his eyebrow, “About what?”

“About Ray.”

Rakai smirks, “Oooh.” 

Madi rolls his eyes, “It’s not like what you think.”

“Nah, it’s okay! Be who you are y’now, I find guys attractive too-“

“Rakai.”

“If this is about you and Ray then maybe you guys should-“

“Rakai!” 

The younger man stops, “This isn’t a joke bro. I’m being serious.”

Rakai shrugs, “If you wanted to have some deep and mysterious conversation then you should have met with Tylil or Reggie or something.”

“Rakai, it’s like you don’t understand.” Rakai was his friend but he now understood why others would call him annoying, he was getting on his nerves, “You’re close to Ray, possibly even more closer to Ray than me.”

Rakai pauses his next bite, “And?”

“Do you think Ray is acting more distant than usual…?”

Rakai thinks for a few seconds and the wait felt agonising, “Well, he’s not been acting distant to me and the others so…”

“D’you think he hates me.”

“Hate?!” Rakai looks at Madi like he said the most dumbass shit ever, “You think Ray hates you?!” Madi feels an utter sense of embarrassment wash over him, “If you think Ray could ever hate you, you’re dumb as fuck, if anything, that n* probably is in love with you or something.”

“Don’t say that!”

“What?? It’s true.” Rakai insists with a grin plastered on his face, “Why you asking me in the first place though?”

“Recently Ray has been acting weird around me, it’s like he doesn’t wasn’t to be around me.”

“And? Have you even confronted Ray about this?” Rakai says the obvious.

“It’s different man, if someone is acting like they don’t fuck with you anymore you can’t just ask them why.”

Rakai looks at Madi like he’s a complete idiot, “Nah, you can. I’ve done that before.”

“Yeah, but that’s you.”

“So, what do you want me to do then?!” Rakai yells frustrated, “Disturbing my lunch, begging for my advice and not even taking it is crazy.” Madi sighs and then Rakai comes to the realisation, “Did you only agree to hang out with me so you can talk about your relationship struggles with Ray?!”

“No, of course not.” He defends.

“Madi, you just need to figure this shit out yourself gang, cause the only person who knows how Ray feels about you is Ray himself. You got to talk to him,” Rakai pauses, “Personally.”

“Didn’t know you could give advice.”

“I’m feeling intellectual today dude!” Rakai answers.

“Not your usual then.” Madi laughs as Rakai jokingly hits him. They finish their meal and Madi takes in his friend’s advice. He needed to have a one on one with Ray and ask him what was going on. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he had possibly ruined his friendship with him.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Madi knocks on the door to Ray’s room, “Can I come in?” He could hear the clicking of Ray’s keyboard and the squeaky sound of his chair as Ray rocks back and forth.

Ray takes a long time to answer but just about when Madi was going walk away he calls on him, “You can come in man.”  

Madi steps into Ray’s bedroom, it was neat, nothing was in any way out of place. Ray wasn’t facing him his eyes clearly on his PC screen as he loads up GTA.

“You need something, Madi?” Ray swings his chair to face him, Ray’s eyes locks unto Madi’s but he quickly looks away which makes Madi even more confused and irritated.

“You already forgotten how I look like Ray? You can’t even face me no more.” He chuckles.

“Madi, I’m not in the mood.”

Madi sighs, okay then… “ Look, have I done something Ray? And if I did can you just-“

“I’m not in the mood bro! Do I have to tell you twice?!” Ray shouts. He gets up and directly faces Madi, “What don’t you understand? Do you like me or something?!” He exasperates.

Madi stares at Ray like he’s at lost of words and Ray knows he fucked up, “Me? Like you?” 

Ray doubles down, “Yeah.”

“Oh my god man, you can’t be serious.” Madi says in utter disbelief, “You’re the one that has been acting weird this whole time but you’re trying to say it’s all me?!”

“Since that fucking edit went big we’ve been shipped together dude! You said ‘let’s just act on it as jokes’ and look what happened, we can’t even be seen on camera without people saying we’re together!”

Madi shakes his head, “So this is all about the edits huh?”

“Obviously.”

“Ray, I thought you didn’t care about that shit.”

“Well, I do Madi. It annoys the absolute shit outta me and it makes us seem a lot more different than what we actually are.”

“So then, what the hell do you want us to do? How are we gonna fix this?!” Madi knows he sounds desperate, but he doesn’t care, he wants to know why Ray was treating him like this, acting like they weren’t friends. 

Ray runs his hand through his hair feeling overwhelmed, “We need to distance ourselves Madi, we just can’t be as close as we were before.” He says frantically and Madi wonders if Ray has hit his head on something and lost all of his remaining brain cells.

“Ray, you can’t be serious.” Madi was waiting for Ray to come back to his senses but he doesn’t. The shorter boy just looks at him like he was the one being irrational.

Madi shakes his head in utter shock, “Ray, did you ever value our friendship that you’re so ready to let go for it just because of a silly edit saying that we’re together, are you that fragile man?” Madi questions, this whole argument felt stupid to him, Ray was acting like an absolute idiot. “Were we ever even friends?!”

And Ray stops, like he had just realised the extent of his words, what he was saying, the meaning, the intent. How it was all hurting Madi. He could see the tears swelling up in the taller boy’s eyes and how Madi was slightly shaking, he hopes it due to anger because of Ray’s insecurities and not because of how much Ray was breaking him internally.

“M-Madi, are you crying?” Ray stutters worried. 

“Why would you care, we’re not friends, are you just going to burst out laughing or are you just going to leave me alone like you so want?!” Madi wipes his tearful eyes with his hands and Ray had to fight the urge to console him. If Ray makes a statement, he always stands by it, that’s who Ray was, he wasn’t a pussy. It was just that now maybe his own words weren’t something he actually stood with…

Madi was about to leave but Ray grabs onto his hand, “Madi wait!” 

Madi shoves him off, “Ray, are you serious? I thought you stood on the shit you say.” Ray doesn’t say anything because Madi was right, he watches as his friend, no- not friend anymore because of him. He watches as Madi leaves him alone in his room, he stands alone in his room processing what the hall had just happened in the past five minutes, “FUCK!” 

Madi finds himself in the bathroom, crying. A twenty-year old man crying because of a broken friendship, in his brain he knew it was pathetic but in his heart it was like there was nothing else to do but let it all out and spill out the bubbling feelings of heartbreak. Realising that Ray cared so little about the friendship he treasured hurt, it hurt him so much more than he’d ever expect, and he didn’t even know who and what to blame. 

ᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃Ray.ִֶָ𓂃ᥫ᭡.ִֶ

Ray knows he should apologise but it was like his tongue was tied. He knew what he needed to do but for some reason he couldn’t, it was his massive ego and him never wanting to be wrong even though it ended in breaking friendships and hurting the ones he loved and cared so deeply for. That was his worst trait, and that trait made him lose his best friend.

The animosity in the Clover mansion was even worse, everyone knew that they had a fallen out, both of them not wanting to talk to anyone, the lack of wanting to go outside, interact. Not only was this hurting him and Madi but was also subconsciously hurting the rest of them, the vibes were lost and the streams were boring, 

“Ray you fucked up.”

“Shut up, Rakai. You’re supposed to be helping me feel better,”

“Damn, okay,” Rakai looks around and then turns back to Ray, “But you did fuck up though.”

“You don’t think I know?!”

He was in Rakai’s room; he needed to at least talk to someone even if that person was going to be no use to him in any way. 

“Ray, just apologise bro, you and Madi breaking up is not just affecting you and him it’s affecting all of us too! Get back together so everything will be normal again.”

“We’re not dating dumbass.”

“Then it should be easier for you to apologise then!”

“Just go up to him, say sorry and hug it out.”

“That isn’t enough bro,” Ray sighs, “Nothing would be enough to show how sorry I am for hurting him.”

“Well, you not even talking to him in a week isn’t really helping your case either.”

Ray knows that his friend is correct, but he wasn’t going to admit it, “What could I do to show him that I’m deeply sorry that I’ve messed everything up and ruined our friendship?” Ray thinks out loud.

“Have you tried calling Kai about it?” Rakai suggests, “He’s like our big bro, probably got some galactic guidance for you.” 

“What would he say that hasn’t been said before.” Ray says wearily.

“Damn, you’re really depressed, you not even going to ask Kai for help is crazy.”

“What about Agent?”

“Agent?” Rakai repeats, “What is Agent gonna do?”

“He’s way wiser than Kai bro, he probably has actual good advice.”

Rakai looks at his friend confused, “So you’re going to all the way to the AMP house to talk to Agent about this?”

“Yeah, is it a bad idea?”

“Eh, it could be worse. Can I come?”

“Just follow me.”

“A-A-And can I drive us there?” Rakai stutters.

“Oh my god…”

Rakai urging Ray if he could drive them made his heart almost drop into his asshole, but he wasn’t going to go alone and wouldn’t mind hanging out with his friend. Though the drive was hit with waves of turbulence which should really only be said about planes, they arrive at the AMP house in less than 30 minutes. 

“Do you know what’s crazy, we didn’t even call em we just showed up, like what if none of them are even there.” Rakai states. 

Ray ignores Rakai’s attempt to lighten up the mood as he knocks on the AMP door, “They better be in, I didn’t suffer in that car for nothing.”

“Suffer?!” Rakai repeats.

It takes less than a minute for Ray to hear the sound of Fanum and his stature peeking out of the door, “Ray? Ray!” He says with a grin, he opens the door wide. “Haven’t seen you in way too long bro. Oh, Rakai, you’re here too.”

Rakai smiles, “Yeah, yeah. You missed me as well.”

“Can we come in?” Ray asks.

“Of course, I was just getting a quick snack.”

“Is, erm, Agent here too?”

“Oh yeah, he’s in his room probably editing and stuff.”

Ray leaves Rakai and Fanum to chat downstairs, he heads up to Agents room and knocks on his door, “Come in!”

As Ray enters the room he could clearly see Agent at his gaming PC with an editing software clearly loaded up.

“Agent?”

“Ray?” Agent turns around in his chair, “What are you doing here bro, everything good?” 

“Nothing good.”

Agent laughs at his blunt answer but when Ray doesn’t join him he quickly realises that Ray was a hundred percent serious, “Oh, what happened man.”

“Messed everything up between me and a friend.”

“Rakai?”

Ray shakes his head, “Nah, you probably don’t know him that well.”

“Okay…”

“Can you help me though?”

Agent raises his eyebrow confused, “With what exactly?” 

“How do I apologise to someone and show them that I really mean it after being a really bad friend to them.”

“Uh, well.” Agent thinks, “That’s a lot,” he pauses trying to gather up all his thoughts, “Well, if I was you and I messed up a friendship that I didn’t mean to I would apologise-

“I already know that man!” He cuts off.

“Then, let me finish. If I were in your position, I would also spill out everything.”

Ray looks at Agent confused, “What do you mean by that?” Ray’s English wasn’t perfectly, his writing was off and pronunciation was sometimes abysmal, so learning and understanding phrases were a challenging task too, right now he didn’t know what the fuck Agent meant. 

“I meant that I would tell them everything, yeah, say you’re sorry. But that doesn’t solve everything, ‘you owned up to your mistakes but I’ll still hold this grudge forever’. That doesn’t work. That’s why what you have to do is tell the person everything.”

“Everything?”

“Everything. You gotta talk about why you said what you said, your guilt, and all the feelings you have had about the situation and how it’s affecting you. You can’t just say ‘I’m sorry’ over and over again, you have to prove to them that you’re sorry too.”

Ray nods, “Yeah, that makes sense, it’s just the feelings part.”

“The feelings part? That should be the easiest one.” 

Ray looks around the room scanning if anyone was there, “The feelings part would be too complicated, Agent.” 

“Huh, do you not like them?” Agent looks at Ray confused.

“No, complete opposite.”

“Oh…OH.” 

“Yeah…”

“Is that also why you came here then…”

Ray shakes his head, “I couldn’t tell him- them, then. That wouldn’t be the right thing to do..”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

A comfortable silence fills the air, “Thanks, Agent.”

“It’s good Ray, I gotta get back to editing right now though, but if you have any need for more advice, you can always call.”

Ray takes Agent’s advice to heart; he needed to fix his mistakes and make thinks right with Madi because f he didn’t apologise soon then their relationship might be ruined forever.

ᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃Madi.ִֶָ𓂃ᥫ᭡.ִֶ

“You’re acting like he was your boyfriend and he broke your heart gang.” 

Madi turns to Reem unimpressed, “I thought you said you were going to be my moral support.”

“Yeah, for like the first day and two. It’s been a week, Madi. You need to stop looking so depressed, the shit is even making me sad.”

“Maybe my heart is broken Reem.”

“How can a broken friendship break a man’s heart? LOVE breaks hearts Madi! If you did what Ray did to you to me then yeah, I’ll be upset the first day and two but I still have other friends to rely on. You’ve only known Ray for what? Five months? And you are both acting like guys were married for twenty years and just filed for a divorce, it’s crazy.”

“Well, sorry that my heart is bigger than my brain, Reem.” He exasperates, “Now, if you’re just going to annoy me you can leave.”

Reem scoffs, “You gonna make me leave my own bedroom?!”

Oh yeah, Madi was in Reem’s room.

“Shit, sorry,”

Reem chuckles, “You gotten so used to moping around all day you forget where you are.”

“Shut up man.” Even though Reem was his very best friend sometimes he could get on his very nerves.

“Madi.”

“What?”

“Are you and Ray…” Reem trails off.

Madi’s eyes widen, “Huh?” The mention of the name ‘Ray’ startles him. 

“Like, with all this going on it just makes me think about you and Ray’s relationship and stuff.”

“If you had that in mind you would stick to theorising on TikTok comment sections.” 

“No, Madi, not in a joking way, I’m being legit.”

Madi stops.

“I remember when you told me on that Cloverz sleepover recently that you weren’t into girls as much as you pretend to be into them on stream. When you used to talk about the crushes you had on them male actors on TV, when you never really liked when I went on about girls, back then I thought it was all just a big homo joke…”

“Reem-“

“You don’t got be up front to me about it like ‘REEM I’M GAY’ but you don’t have to lie to me, not anymore.”

Madi sighs, “And maybe I was so open to you that you thought I was joking when that was just who I really was the whole time.”

Reem awkwardly laughs, “This is some deep shit gang.”

“Yeah…” 

Reem takes a deep breath, “Look, I don’t want to piss you of or anything, but I need to keep it a buck…”

Madi can already feel the question crawling up and down his skin.

“Do you like Ray?”

Madi groans, “I don’t fucking know.”

Reem looks at his friend in disbelief, “How the fuck do you not know?”

“Maybe- I think. I don’t know! Maybe at the start I felt like I did but what would be the point, he’s made how he feels about me clear bro.”

“Madi, do you like him, NOW.”

“I told your Reem, I don’t think deeply about this stuff!”

“Madi, tell me the truth.”

“Okay, okay.”

“C’mon, I don’t have all day.”

“Yes okay! I like Ray, more than a friend, and I think I always have.”

“So, it was never casual, you and Ray’s relationship?”

“It was, at the start.” Everything was casual in the beginning, they were friends who hung out, he didn’t know how it ended up like this. 

Madi could see the apologetic look that was ridden on Reem’s face, “It seems like it was only you guys and me who ever thought it was nothing but casual then…”

“It seems like the whole world knew our relationship wasn’t anything casual before we knew ourselves.”

“So, you think Ray likes you back?”

“How would I know, he doesn’t want to be around me anymore, I’m ruining his reputation, these gay rumours have messed up our relationship and it’s probably for good.”

“Madi, if I’m ever going to give you any piece of advice is that not everything is as clear as it seems.”

“Shut up, dumbass.”

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Madi quickly comes to the conclusion that the stupid ass advice Reem gave him a day ago wasn’t that stupid and ass. 

Because why was Ray right in front of him while he wanted to get fresh air out in the porch of the Clover house?

“You know you didn’t have to follow me outside, right?”

“I wouldn’t call it following…”

“You’re following me.”

“Yeah, I am.”

Madi try’s hard to contain his laugh, he missed Ray’s jokes and the happiness he felt when he was near. It was hard to act like he hated something he so very much loved.

Madi turns around to see Ray, he was in over sized black hoodie with matching sweatpants. It was nothing unusual, it was a casual Ray fit but for some reason it startled him, maybe it was due to fact that him and Ray hadn’t actually been this close together in a long time without it not ending with them avoiding each other or arguing.

“I thought you said you wanting us to distance ourselves. I thought you always stick to your words and stand on business.” 

“If my business is someone I care about it’s different, sometimes you can stand on that shit.”

Madi laughs, “This is not the Ray I know.” 

“Maybe the previous Ray you knew changed.” 

The sun was setting and the air was getting colder but for some reason it still felt as warm as ever, “You got nothing else to say?”

Ray walks up him and joins Madi, standing right by his side looking onto sunset too, “It’s cool right?”

“Eh, I’ve seen better.” Madi jokes, which causes Ray to chuckle.

The sun fully sets and the darkness of the night gives an ominous feeling, with only the dim porch lights around them being the source of light it quickly gets cold and Ray could clearly see Madi shivering even though the taller boy had tried to play it off. 

“You good, Madi?”

“Yep.”

Ray could clearly see that Madi was lying but he did not want to directly address it, he knew he had to apologise to him soon but he was waiting for the perfect time, he couldn’t mess this up especially when it was going so well.

“What in the hell are you doing?” Madi watches as Ray takes of his hoodie with just a thin, plain t-shirt underneath , “You can’t be for real Ray, you’re gonna freeze.”

Ray hands him his hoodie, “Madi, you know that I can handle the cold.”

Madi giggles and Ray didn’t know exactly how much he missed it until right then, “It’s gonna be too small for me man.”

“It’s oversized, it’ll fit.” 

And indeed it did, though it was a little tight on the arms it wasn’t uncomfortable and it did warm Madi up, “Thanks.” He says softly.

“Wait, before I forget.” Ray’s eyes lock on Madi’s again and this time he has the balls to not look away, “I need to tell you something.”

“Huh?”

“I’m sorry, Madi.” Ray apologises, “I just sometimes- y’know I-“

“Ray…”

“I messed everything up, and before you say anything else, I should have apologised sooner, waiting a week was wrong. I was just so- so-“

“Ray, it’s fine. We’re cool, I’m just happy that you don’t hate me.”

“I never hated you man, I was just- what’s the word.”

Madi sees that Ray is getting frustrated and that he can’t find the correct words to tell him how he felt, “You are in the wrong, Ray.”

Ray sighs, “Yeah, that’s what I was trying to say.” 

“You got there in the end though.”

“Yep, so, no bad blood between us?” Ray asks.

Madi laughs, “There was never bad blood between us in the first place.”

ᥫ᭡.ִֶָ𓂃RAY + MADI.ִֶָ𓂃ᥫ᭡.ִֶ

The next day is better, way better. It was the middle of the day and Madi couldn’t remember the last time he was happy to wake up and see what the rest of the day had in store for him. The rest of the Clover boyz notice the lack of tension in the air and how it looked like nothing had ever happened in the first place and both boys didn’t just have a fallen out together a week prior.

“So, y’all are finally cool?” Reggie walks in casually with a cup in his hand, “I thought you guys fell out.” He places it in the sink, “Right?” He emphasises.

Ray and Madi were leaning over the kitchen cabinet Madi’s arm around Ray’s shoulder, “We’re too close for that to ever happen, Reggie.” Madi answers for the both of them.

“Both of you guys have barely known each other for year and you guys have went through the friendship stages of me and one of my homies that I’ve known for over decade, I respect that.” 

Madi bursts out laughing and Ray giggles, “Yeah, man.”

“Well, I’ll see y’all out.” Ray and Madi watch as Reggie leaves, “And don’t do any weird shit here either!”

“What would we even do?!” Ray yells out.

“The weird shit y’all always do.”

Madi rolls his eyes and whispers to Ray, “He’s acting like he don’t got ship edits either.”

“Yeah, him and Tylil are crazy.” 

“Extremely crazy.”

Ray quickly turns to face Madi and his breath hitches, like he just noticed how close he was to the other boy, his eyes latch’s to Madi’s lips, “Y-yeah.”

“You don’t agree?” Madi questions, trying to ignore the way that Ray was looking at him. 

“Obviously, man…” Ray feels the heat rising in his checks and he doesn’t know if it was from embarrassment or because he wanted to kiss Madi.

“You good, Ray?”

“Kinda bored.” He answers swiftly.

“What do you suggest we should do then?” Madi flirts and Ray goes stiff, “You got any ideas?”

“I don’t know, you’re experienced at that shit.”

Madi raises his eyebrow, “Experienced in what, kissing?”

“You know what I mean.”

Madi ponders, so Ray did know the rumours with him and other men, “But shouldn’t kissing be the essential?”

“We’ve kissed before.”

“We were joking then.”

Ray sighs, “Okay then, let’s do it properly this time.”

Madi leans down and Ray cups his chin he stares into Madi eyes for a few seconds but before he could comprehend Madi had smashed their lips together.

Ray gasps and Madi passionately kisses him again, his eyes flutter closed as he feels Madi’s tongue tracing each edge of his mouth, they quickly pull apart and Madi quickly notices the sultry look on Ray’s face, “Y’know I’ve been waiting for this.”

“Then why’d you stop?” Ray mutters.

“Because I love you.” 

Ray flushes, “I-“

Madi cuts him off as his lips end up on Ray’s neck, “Fuck!” He moans, he didn’t even have time to comprehend Madi’s confession before he feels a sharp sting as Madi’s teeth sinks into his skin, his body feels like it’s on fire as he tenses up, his fingers latch onto Madi’s hair, the feeling of wetness, the way he felt like was going to-

“Hell to the fuck NO!” They both quickly let go and turn around to see the figure standing at the end of the hallway, “Ya’ll got no fucking social awareness?!”

“Tylil?” They gasp in unison.

Tylil stomps up to them exasperated, “If y’all are gonna make out, make out in private not in the damn kitchen?!”

“We didn’t mean to! We got ahead of our selves.” Ray apologises but Tylil doesn’t take none of it.

“The kitchen is meant to eat food, not to bite and chew on Ray’s next, Madi.”

“It’s called hickies gang!”

Tylil groans, “I know, I literally just caught y’all doing it with the evidence for everyone to see on Ray’s fucking neck!”

Ray quickly used his hand to cover the side of his necked that Madi had marked up on, he also tries his hardest to contain his laugh, “C’mon we were just having fun!”

“You can have your fun somewhere else then! Shoo!” Tylil hisses and they are both kicked out the kitchen.

“Damn.” Ray utters.

“That’s crazy.” Madi agrees.

Ray turns to Madi, “It felt good by the way.”

“What? The hickie?”

“Yeah, that.”

“You’ve never had a hickie before?”

“New experience, can I try it on you now?”

Madi giggles, “Not now though, maybe later.”

“Fuck.”

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

“Kaleel, should I ask Madi to be my boyfriend?

Kaleel spits out his food, “W-what?!”

“Or am I moving on too fast?”

Kaleel coughs, “I thought you guys made up like two days ago.”

“Yeah.” 

“And Tylil told me he caught y’all making out like yesterday.”

“Mhm.” Ray nods.

“Isn’t that a bit…”

“Close?”

“Yeah,” Kaleel agrees, “Have you guys even went on a date?”

“Not really, no.” Ray starts contemplating, “But I don’t wanna wait, the last time I waited I almost ruined everything.”

Kaleel nods, “I see.” 

“What if I ask him on a date and right at the end ask him to be my boyfriend?”

“Honestly, not a bad idea.” 

“But how should I do it?” He asks.

“Well, you’ve taken girls out on dates before, it’s basically the exact same thing. Go to restaurant, chat and then at the end ask them.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Kaleel smiles, “But should I get him flowers then, all the dates I’ve been on I gave the girl flowers.”

Kaleel groans, “Well, one, Madi is not a girl and two, he probably wouldn’t even want a bouquet.”

“You’re right, again,” Ray thinks that Kaleel was getting tired of him talking about Madi, “I don’t know why but the idea suddenly popped in my head, like, ‘I need to ask Madi if he’ll be my boyfriend,' and the thought hasn't left me since.” 

“That’s okay man, so you’re gonna do it?” Kaleel asks curious.

“Yeah, just gotta think of a place where we won’t be caught.”

“Imagine how the internet would react catching you guys on a date!” Kaleel effused.

Ray runs his hand through his hair, “That’s the annoying part, they can’t.”

“True, true.” They ponder for a while, “Wait, what if we set it up here?”

“Here?”

“Yeah, the backyard. We got the funds.”

Ray grins, “Good.”

“It might take some days to plan-“

“Today is going to be so fucking special.” Ray says, reminiscing on the future.

“Today?!” Kaleel stands up from his chair shook, “You serious?”

Ray looks at his friend puzzled, “Why wouldn’t I be? Madi isn’t even here right now, it’s perfect.” 

“You weren’t lying when you said you was doing this on a whim?”

“I never lie.”

Kaleel shakes his head, “If we’re going to do this today, we’ll need to start now, only like six hours to 7 o’clock.” 

“I’m ready, man.”

“Then let’s go.” 

Kaleel drives them to Costco and they buy all the necessary equipment to set everything up, the next store is then Target where they bought all the decorations. They did get noticed by fans but they played it off easily, it was for an upcoming YouTube idea and when it eventually doesn’t come out they play it off that the cameras didn’t work.

“And what are we going to do about the food situation?”

“Shit, yeah.” Ray finally realises, “Well just order something gourmet off doordash.”

“Doordash got gourmet shit?”

“We’ll check.”

When they get in the car, Kaleel in the driver seat and Ray in the passenger seat, Kaleel turns to him, “You ready?”

“More than ready bro.”

When they get back to the house they sneak in, Ray told Kaleel that Madi wouldn’t be back until seven which meant they had less than three hours to set everything up.

Ray starts bringing the chairs out of the trunk while Kaleel was already carrying the table to the backyard, “He better agree to be your boyfriend because I have never done this much labour in my life!” Kaleel complains.

“Shut the fuck up!”

Kaleel groans, “Alright then.”

They do eventually get caught by someone.

“W-what the hell are you guys doing?”

“Rakai! I thought you said you won’t be back until like 9pm?” 

“Plans got cancelled gang, but what are you and Ray even doing?” Rakai questions as he watches Kaleel and Ray carry stuff to the backyard.

Ray answers, “Setting up for my date.”

“Huh, with who?”

Kaleel glares, “Who do you think dumbass.”

“Okay, okay. Can someone not try to think logically for once?”

“You never think logically in the first place.”

Rakai mutters, “Shut up.”

Ray starts to get irritated, “So, are you gonna help set up with us or are you gonna keep distracting.”

“I’ll help, I’ll help, jeez.” Rakai starts bringing the decorations, “But like when did you guys even plan this?”

Kaleel answers, “Today.”

“Nah, Ray you’re crazy man. Have you even asked him on this date?”

“Of course not, what’s the point if he’s gonna arrive here and it’s in the backyard.”

“So, the minute he steps in he’s on a date, that doesn’t make no sense.”

“Stop asking questions and help!”

“But it’s true though?!”

“You don’t know the whole plan!” Ray yells, “This is my date and you guys said you would help, so help!”

“Damn, okay then.” 

Everything was going according to plan. Ray had quickly changed out of sweats into something more presentable for a date, the tables and chairs were set up perfectly, the decorations looked good and were exactly how he imagined with the candles being lit. 

“This is romantic as fuck.” Rakai expresses looking at the final product, “Like if I was Madi I would marry you in an instant.”

“What?!” Kaleel croaks.

“It’s a compliment!” Rakai says defending himself. 

Ray ignores the sound of his friends arguing with each other in the background and focuses on the sight in front of him. The amount of effort he and his friends put into everything paid off and Ray couldn’t help but stare at the end result in awe.

Kaleel walks up to him, “The ‘gourmet’ food we ordered is on the way.”

Ray nods, “Perfect.”

“Wait guys,” Both Kaleel and Ray turn to look at Rakai, “If Madi is supposed to come back at 7.00pm and it’s 7.06pm-“

“Ya’ll need to fucking go now!”

The trio splits up, Kaleel and Rakai try to quickly run back inside but they are stopped by the figure right in front of the doors, “Ray?”

Ray quickly freezes up, “Madi…” Though seeing Madi’s face and being in his presence was always a pleasant feeling knowing that the whole surprise date thing was ruined, wasn’t.

Madi walks up to him perplexed, “What is all this for?”

Ray tried to bite his tongue but there was no use in lying, Madi had already seen the surprise, “For you?”

Madi looks taken aback, “For me?”

Ray blushes, “Yeah.”

“Wow.” Ray watches as Madi glances back at the scenery and Ray could see the happiness radiating from Madi and he couldn’t help himself but to smile too, “Wow, that’s-that’s beautiful,” Madi looks down at Ray, “Thank you.”

“It was nothing.” Ray lies and Madi laughs totally not believing him.

“This is a date then.” Madi emphasises.

“What else would it be?”

Madi rolls his eyes, he sometimes wonders why the world was so confusing one day but then in the next made perfect sense. He also wonders why all that also correlates with love. Madi wasn’t new to romantic love, he was young but had his fair share of relationships that the Madi back then would label as ‘love’ but now, now he isn’t sure if he has ever truly loved.

Not until he met Ray of course.

The date went well, it was definitely non-conventional but he didn’t really mind, normal dates were boring, this one was far from it. Though it was not really a surprise he was still in shock of what Ray and his friends had set up just to surprise him.

His only con was the artificial tasting food, but Ray didn’t make it so it was fine.

The date quickly comes to an end and they somehow end up stargazing just them together.

Madi giggles, “I don’t even know what any of these stars mean.” He turns to his side to look at Ray but he’s silent, “You good?”

Ray sits up, “Madi can I ask you something?”

Madi looks at him confused, “Yeah…” 

Ray looks back at him and Madi could tell that something was running through him mind.

“Y’know, the date was really special, even without the grand surprise.” He says softly but still Ray stays quiet, “I really liked it.”

Ray sighs, “Yeah, it still kinda sucks though.”

“Well, if I loved it then why should anything else matter?”

Ray believes that is a rhetorical question - but he still answers anyway, “Because you matter!”

Madi agrees, “That’s true. However, it still went really well, I honestly wouldn’t change it even if I could, Ray.” 

Madi stand up and pulls Ray up to, “Just because the surprise was ruined doesn’t mean the whole day was.”

“I know,” Ray admits.

“If you knew you wouldn’t be looking so sad.”

“Well you’ll have to cheer me up then.” Ray shrugs.

“And how would I do that?” He asks.

“By being my boyfriend.”

Madi chokes, then blinks again and again, that was truly out of nowhere.

Ray feels a sense of nervousness that was not there before, he never thought of the situation that Madi could just reject him.

“Ray, please say you’re not joking with me?”

Ray looks at Madi dumbfounded, why would he even be lying? “You can’t be serious-“

But then Madi’s lips was on his and their fingers intertwined, and the sloppiness and the warmth helps him quickly forget his sense of confusion in the first place, when their lips pull apart Madi pulls him into a warm embrace.

“Madi, I don’t think I will ever find the words to express how much I love you.” Ray confesses.

And then they kiss again, and again, until they had ended right back on the grass underneath them with their bodies tangled together and their lips becoming one.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

Madi and Ray wonder how they ever thought that their relationship was just casual. Everyone else knew it wasn’t, but maybe them taking their time was the best answer, as it clearly produced the best result.