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“You’ll probably be using auto mode most of the time, but if you want to switch to manual and play around with the exposure and other settings then there's a button righttt..here!” Felix activated a sliding switch on the side of the camcorder in Zontik's hands. It whirred for a second like an animal disturbed in its slumber before falling silent once again. Zontik clasped it with both hands, petrified to drop it, but Felix poking it from every direction as he showed him how to use it didn't make it any easier to hold it with a steady grip.
“The exposure..?” Zontik asked, not comprehending anything. Felix paused his ramblings for a second.
“..Let's just stick to auto for now. But look, this is my favourite part, the bit that flips out, isn't it so fun?” Felix demonstrated it by grabbing the camcorder out of Zontik's hand and flipping the side monitor out; he pointed it at a resting Dante on the beanbag, his form only coming up as a red blur as the camera struggled to focus. He then swiveled it back to the clone in front of him, a tiny Zontik appeared on the screen, his timid wave only barely showing up on the pixelated image.
Felix giggled as he strained his eyes to look at the tiny screen. “You think you got it?” he asked, giving the camcorder back to him. “Just remember to capture the most intricate and otherwise unnoticed moments, the parts of life that go overlooked, y'know?"
Felix's flowery language somehow softened the pressure of Zontik being his new right hand man in video recording. Felix had approached him with the idea of them sharing the recorder, partly because he figured he couldn't be everywhere all of the time, having another set of eyes meant they could capture even more of those blissful moments in life. But also mostly because he noticed a distinct lack of himself in the first round of video archives he created, and secretly hoped Zontik would give him an opportunity to be in front of the camera for once.
As Zontik finished adjusting the side screen, Romeo came into the room, smiling widely when seeing Felix and immediately initiating conversation. Zontik couldn't hear what they were saying over his panic to quickly reach for the record button and get the pair in the shot.
Felix had asked for the soft and heartwarming moments to be captured, and there was nothing more soft and heartwarming than the Hearts’ relationship.
All of the clones had noticed something going on between them, admittedly it took longer for some than for others to get it. But once you see it, you start noticing things, like now and the tender way Romeo snaked his arm around Felix's waist as he led him out of the room to a more private area. Zontik followed them down the corridor with the camera still rolling until they made it to Fëdor's room and shut the door behind them. Zontik assumed they wouldn't want him following them so he shut the camera off and walked back to the living room as he tried to recall what Felix had told him about rewatching footage.
He pressed some buttons, partially paranoid that the next one he would press would delete everything. Seeing Dante in the beanbag eased his worries just a bit, just as his presence always seemed to do.
He opened an eye to look at Zontik, zoning in on the camera in his hands. “Through the lens, we preserve the Heartbeats of life” Dante sighed, closing his eyes again. Zontik smiled, he knew Dante was thinking the same as him. The Hearts would be the perfect muse for the video archive 2.0
—
Fëdor didn't like to let the clones use the kitchen without his supervision, usually because when they did the kitchen would always end up looking the way it did now; dirty bowls practically piled up to the ceiling, mysterious condiments spilled onto the already dirty counters. But mainly because the clones involved would always get exasperated at their own lack of culinary ability that it would always lead to some sort of destruction. This was one of those moments. Felix tried to knead the dough, but the more he pushed his palms into it, the more sticky the batter became. It adhered to his warm hands and smeared onto the countertops, by the time Romeo sensed his growing frustration and stopped him it looked like a toddler had found its way into the cooking cabinet.
“Felix, love, stop. You’re acting as if you’ve never baked anything in your life.” Romeo teased as he pulled Felix's hands out of the mess and rubbed more flour onto them.
Felix looked away shyly and giggled, not wanting to admit that he was right.
Romeo let out a small gasp which was far more dramatic than the situation called for. “Never?! Here, let me teach you how to knead.”
Romeo stood behind Felix, his chin almost resting on his shoulder. Felix giggled when Romeo's hair tickled his cheek but calmed down when Romeo put his hands on top of his, moving their hands in the dough until it formed a conceivable round ball.
“Here, wanna try some?” Romeo moved away from behind Felix and broke a small piece of the doughball, holding it up between two fingers. He fed it to Felix, who already had his mouth expectantly open with a big grin. Felix's lips grazed Romeo’s fingers as he put it in and his eyes practically lit up with sweet flavour when he chewed it.
“Ugh, get a room, you two.” Pik called out from the sofa.
Romeo ignored Pik's comment but threw Felix a sneaky eyeroll. He giggled in response as he rolled out a small ball, this time without it sticking to anything thanks to Romeo's help, and flattened it on the cookie tray. Romeo followed suit, their hands strategically working with each other as they prepared the batch.
Just then, Kuromaku walked into the kitchen, a roll of newspaper tucked neatly under his arm. His expression had been stoic when he entered, even seeing his own jack in the corner of the room only emitted a formal nod from him. It wasn't until he saw the Hearts that he broke out into a smile, even if they were in their own world and didn't acknowledge the new presence in the room. He watched the pair in serenity for a second before sitting down on the armchair in the living room and straightening out his paper to start reading it.
His eyes skimmed over the words, but none of them managed to settle into his mind. His eyes somehow always ended up wandering to the Hearts, how they playfully hip-bumped each other, how one of them would always look longingly at the other when they weren't looking. Everyone in the apartment had found their relationship as something refreshing and real that they needed, Kuromaku was just disappointed that they never announced it, or did anything big to celebrate.
It's not like they needed to throw a party to commemorate their love for each other, everyone could see it clear as day. And if they hadn't announced it because they wanted to keep it a secret, Kuromaku doubted they would be so indiscreet about their relationship now. He noticed. Zontik had clearly noticed, capturing their moment from across the room on his camcorder. Pik noticed, occasionally looking back at them from the sofa, trying not to let a small smile break through his hard exterior when they laughed together.
Waru strolled into the main room, running his hands through his green curls. He eyed the prepared baking tray greedily, but his boldness seemed to fade when he saw Romeo and Felix together at the counters. He huffed and silently walked to the other three around the tv and sat down defeatedly on the sofa. Even Waru had started backing off the couple, he would tease Romeo and anger Felix when they were alone (which these days was almost never) but noticeably didn't bother them when they were together. Though this took a lot of willpower and physical restraint from him.
As soon as Romeo had put the tray in the oven and closed the door, he looked down at his own hands, which were white with flour from when he coated Felix's hands. Felix himself was eating the leftover cookie dough off his fingers greedily.
“Here, let me help with that.” Romeo chirped as he tenderly took Felix's hands away from him and held them to himself. He playfully nibbled at the cookie dough, leaving a trail of kisses on each of his fingers. Felix played into it by gushing dramatically, acting as if he was going to pass out on the spot and fanning himself with his free hand. Saying stuff along the lines of “Oh Romeo, you flatter me!”
He lightheartedly pushed Romeo away by his nose, leaving a greasy spot of cookie dough on his face. Romeo gasped slightly and let go of his hand, instead prompting to hold Felix's face with his floury hands on each cheek while laughing. Felix responded by holding Romeo's cheeks in return and squeezing them lightly as he giggled, playfully pulling at them as if he was an infant with cute round cheeks.
When they let go, there were handprint shaped marks on their faces, on Felix's, a powdery white, and on Romeo's, a doughy mess. They laughed at each other's looks before they simultaneously agreed to wash off in the bathroom. Felix set a timer before they left the room, of course accompanied by Romeo holding him by the waist and leading him down the corridor.
As soon as one door closed, another opened.
“Hey guys, whatchya doing?” Fëdor asked as he strolled in, dropping the bag of groceries they had to stretch out over the next week onto the countertop.
There was a collective mumble of “nothing” and “sitting” from the clones. Fëdor rolled his eyes at their idleness before he noticed the sweet smell in the air. He tracked it across the room like a dog on a scent trail to the oven, and crouched down in front of it to look at the cookies baking through the greasy door. He smiled as he straightened himself up.
“Who made cookies?” He asked, looking around the kitchen for the first time since his arrival. “And who's gonna clean up this mess!?”
“Romeo and Felix.” Zontik mumbled, fiddling with the camera.
Fëdor raised an eyebrow. “Right..and where are they now?”
“They're in the bathroom having “alone time”” Waru teased, snickering to himself. Fëdor wanted to roll his eyes again, but something inside him kept him from doing so.
When he had finally figured out that something had been going on between the Hearts, and that he was one of the last to figure it out, he had felt exceptionally disappointed that they hadn't told him about their relationship. He was their creator after all, he deemed that he should have some sort of special insight to what was going on between his own clones.
Yet knowing that they hadn't outright told anyone gave him some hope that he would still be the first in that regard. He had made it his mission to hear the confession straight from their mouths. He started to walk down the hall to the bathroom with a goal in mind.
“Stop! You're just smearing it!” Felix laughed as Romeo held a wet rag to his face, the flour had turned into a gloopy mixture on his cheeks. “It would be easier if I just did it myself with some running water- ough??.”
Romeo plugged Felix's mouth with the rag to shut him up. “Nonsense!” he pouted playfully as he removed the rag. Felix couldn't take him seriously when he still had cookie dough all over his own face, he prioritised Felix as soon as they had entered the bathroom, meaning he didn't pay attention to the mess on himself. “I know what I'm doing.”
Romeo put a hand on top of Felix's head to steady him as he wiped him down. He muttered something about the cloth being softer on his skin than running water, but Felix could only think of the irony with how Romeo's vigorous rubbing had caused his cheeks to go red from rawness in the mirror.
The harshness of the rubbing subsided, and Felix tore his eyes away from his own reflection to look at Romeo and see if he was done. Romeo was patting Felix's face with a new dry cloth softly, looking at him with sultry eyes and a small smile. Felix's eyes fluttered, struggling slightly to hold eye contact when Romeo was so close to his face.
“You know…you’re very pretty.” Romeo whispered, the rubbing almost stopping completely.
Felix blinked and let out a small chuckle. “Thanks..” he looked away and pushed some hair away from his face, twirling the golden strand in between his fingers.
“Anyone would be lucky to have you.” Romeo added, giving Felix's face one last big wipe before he could say anything in return. Felix turned to look back at his reflection, the redness of his cheeks having gotten even brighter. He should’ve asked Romeo to be a bit more gentle.
Romeo finally put the rag away and turned to one of the many bottles of lotion lining the bathroom sink.
“Woah, wait. You're not putting your face masks on me.” Felix held his hands up and stepped away. “I don't need them, don't worry.”
“Hm, you're right!” Romeo sighed as he took a step towards him, rubbing his thumb over Felix's cheek. “Your skin is already so clear, you don't need any products.”
“Thanks?”
When Romeo's hand slid away from his cheek, Felix smiled giddily. Thankfully Romeo didn't seem to notice.
“That's more than I can say for myself, the oil from this is definitely going to make me break out unless I take a full shower right now.”
Felix was still hung up about the comment on his skin, he ran his own fingers across his cheek to check the smoothness and see if Romeo was right.
Romeo cleared his throat. “I said…I need to take a shower to wash this off.”
Felix stared at him absent-mindedly.
“Are you going to watch me or..?”
“OH! No, I'm sorry, I'll leave!” Felix frantically exclaimed, giggling as he reached for the door handle.
Romeo added a quick: "I mean, I wouldn't mind if you do.” before Felix squeaked at the thought of it and swung the door open, running straight into Fëdor.
Fëdor saw his glistening face from the water that hadn't managed to dry yet. Romeo lingered behind him, still covered in cookie dough, a sight that admittedly startled Fëdor a bit. Felix smiled when he saw him, running up to give him a big hug as Romeo closed the door behind him.
“Fëdor!!” Felix yelled, wrapping his arms around him enthusiastically.
“H-hey! Felix.” Fëdor returned the hug, although less passionately
“How was work?” Felix asked. Fëdor knew it was just him being polite, he knew none of the clones could care less about his job but it was still nice to be acknowledged sometimes. That’s probably what Romeo felt while he was around the beaming Felix who always seemed to be interested in your life. Nobody would care to listen to Romeo's stories about his fancies and his interests in women but Felix, even if he didn’t always understand him.
“It was good.” Fëdor lied. In reality it felt like every step he took dragged another 20 years off his life, he was surprised he hadn’t turned into a puddle of exhaustion by the time he came home.
“Cool! I was just about to go check on the cookies.” Felix turned to the kitchen, waving a definitive “goodbye” at Fëdor.
Fëdor’s fists tightened just a bit as he watched Felix turn the corner.
“Felix, wait!” Fëdor called out.
Felix peeked his head back around the corner, flashing a curious smile at his creator. Fëdor took a deep breath, wondering to himself how he should phrase his concerns.
“Look, I know I’ve been extra busy with work and school and everything but that doesn’t mean I’ll be here for you guys less. I still care about you, if there’s anything you want to tell me, you can tell me, okay?”
Felix was still smiling but the way he cocked his head when he got confused gave him away, a trait he picked up from Gabriel.
“Alright..will do..” Felix said awkwardly as he turned the corner again, heading back into the kitchen.
He bent down to look at the cookies through the oven, the sweet smell penetrated through the glass and by this point was wafting through the entire apartment, stimulating the appetites for the many clones who had gathered in the living room to be the first to try them.
There were still a few minutes left on the timer so Felix left the baked goods inside, standing up straight and mindlessly dusting the countertops as he waited for Romeo to come out or for the cookies to be done, whatever came first.
Kuromaku finally finished the article he was reading when his eyes skimmed over an advertisement for a new park that had opened up with picturesque views. Underneath was a list of activities you could do, “scenic date” being one of them. He figured Romeo and Felix didn't leave the house very often, and this would be a perfect way for them to spend time together for free and without the others getting in their way.
“Felix,” Kuromaku started, making Felix snap to attention and out of his thoughts. “There's a new park that opened up, maybe you and Romeo can visit it together.”
Felix stared at him blankly.
“Y'know, to get away from the apartment for a bit and just spend some time together?”
It took a second for Felix to think of something to say. “Sure, I’ll…keep that in mind.”
Kuromaku wondered why Felix and Romeo were so reluctant to act like a real couple sometimes.
—-
“Gabriel, Zontik, are you guys ready yet?” Kuromaku called from the entryway, his hand already turning the handle, threatening to leave without them. He caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and instinctively slicked his hair back and straightened his glasses before he looked back down the corridor.
“Yeah yeah, just gimmie a sec!” Zontik's panicked voice called out from somewhere in the apartment along with the sound of him opening drawers frantically. Gabriel quietly joined Kuromaku’s side as Zontik rushed to the door, camera in hand.
“I'm ready!” he huffed as Kuromaku sighed, closing the door behind him and taking the sound of chaos with him.
Felix watched this all unfold through the doorway of the living room as he sat on the sofa, he giggled slightly to himself and looked to Romeo, who was on the armchair, for validation. However, he was too engrossed in one of his magazines to notice Felix staring at him.
Pik walked behind Romeo's seat, only glancing at the magazine Romeo held in his hands, and immediately scowling at what he deemed to be repulsive images that should never be printed out or read by anyone, especially by someone who was already involved with someone else. He walked in front of the sofa to take a look at the cover and see if it was more of the same junk as inside. It was exactly what he had suspected, and the worst part was that Romeo was shameless with it.
“Felix, are you okay with him reading that…crap?” Pik asked, making Felix look up from his phone and at Romeo’s magazine.
He shrugged. “Yeah, why wouldn't I be?” he looked back down at his phone, completely unbothered, even daring to add a small chuckle at the end of his next sentence. “Why should I care what other people are into?”
Because you guys are dating? Is what Pik thought. But what he said was nothing.
Maybe he wasn't as familiar with the romance scene as he initially thought. Maybe they had some sort of level of trust that any outsider wouldn’t be able to understand. These were the Hearts after all, they were the most experienced in showing affection and knowing what was good in a relationship.
Is what Pik assumed
Romeo suddenly sighed dramatically, closing the magazine and dropping it on the floor next to him with the cover facing up, to Pik’s annoyance.
“Pik is right, I've had enough of these magazines…for today.” he added the last part with a sneaky smirk, standing up and walking over to Felix.
“Felix, move your hands, I want to lay down.” Romeo instructed. Felix immediately lifted his hands from his lap and Romeo replaced them with his own head, settling in almost instantly on his thighs.
Pik just left the room in bewilderment. He would never understand these two.
–
Romeo woke from Felix's lap just as Zontik walked into the room, back from his outing with Kuromaku and Gabriel, holding the camera up high like a trophy.
“I think it's ready.” Zontik said timidly as he held the camera up to Felix, who gasped happily and practically snatched it from his hands to connect it to the tv to replay. A groggy Romeo straightened himself up as Felix fiddled with the cables and called the rest of the clones in. They all entered the room eagerly with a small excited mutter amongst them. Even Pik seemed keen to watch back the footage, placing himself just in the doorframe so as to not draw attention to himself.
“It might not be the best, just don't get your hopes up...” Zontik mumbled, but Felix put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“I’m sure whatever's on there, it'll be great. You learned from the best after all.” Felix pointed a finger to himself as he sat down next to Romeo on the sofa. The tv was static for a second before an image cleared on the screen from when Zontik first got the camera rolling. It was just a few seconds of Romeo leading Felix by the waist as they walked down to Fëdor's room, the camera immediately shutting off as the door closed.
“I wonder what you two got up to in there.” Waru snickered, Felix huffed with irritancy, but his annoyance subsided as soon as Romeo subconsciously mimicked the action on screen, holding Felix closer to him and dragging him across the cushions to lean his head against his shoulders.
There was a video of Gabriel attempting to pet a stray cat, and another split second clip of Zontik accidentally turning the camera on while pointing it at himself and switching it off in a panic, his voice cut off to more static. The clones in the room chuckled lightly as Zontik squeaked with embarrassment, but then the next clip began to play.
It was the familiar mess of the kitchen, dirtied bowls on every counter, flour spilled so far that every surface had turned white, but in the middle of it was Romeo and Felix. It captured the moment where Romeo held Felix's hands tenderly as he kissed the cookie dough off of it. Their voices were muffled from the distance but the camera picked up on Felix's blush, on the screen he looked flustered and tense, a stark contrast to how Felix thought he was presenting himself at the time.
“Oh god, I look so red in that footage.” Felix giggled, hiding the blush creeping on his face in that second, he looked like a carbon copy of the reddening Felix on the screen.
“Awe, it's so cute though.” Romeo almost whispered, tightening his grip on Felix. Zontik couldn't help but look at them and smile. even Kuromaku looked down at the pair from behind the sofa and smirked just enough to show he cared.
In the footage, Romeo held Felix by his cheeks, just as they had done days prior, Felix responded by doing the same. Their grins faded into small smitten smiles as they looked each other in the eyes, their foreheads almost touching. The space between them seemed to soften as they soaked up each other's presence through tender eye contact, it almost looked like they swayed in sync on the spot, dancing to inaudible music only they could hear. Zontik hadn't ever seen this amount of tension even between a staged couple made for tv. At this point, none of the clones were watching the screen, they had seen this type of behaviour from the Hearts all the time so this was nothing new for them, instead all eyes were pointed towards Felix and Romeo. They looked at the screen with small confused smiles that mostly read as concern.
“Is that...is that really what we looked like?” Felix asked with a strained voice.
“Is there something wrong with it?” Romeo asked with a bit more poise.
“No, it's just- we look so..”
The video turned to static, the white noise cutting Felix off his sentence. It cleared itself again to a new unfamiliar location. The camera started off pointing at the wooden planks on the floor and Zontik's shoes, before quickly being lifted up to point at an arrangement of flowers, a sudden explosion of colour on screen. Gabriel appeared in the shot, curiously looking at the abundance of flowers and gently touching each of their petals.
“What ones should we get?” Gabriel asked, turning around to look at the camera.
“How about roses?” Zontik's voice asked from behind the camera, much louder than Gabriel's, drowning out the crispy sound of background voices for a few seconds.
“It's too cliché.” Kuromaku said from off screen “And expensive.” The camera panned to him, holding a booklet with all the types of flowers that were being sold and their significance behind them. He studied it intently, humming after he finished reading the description of one to decode if he thought it to be fit. “What about…tulips?”
The camera scanned back over the heaps of vibrant flowers to look for the bouquet of tulips, but before Zontik could find it, the screen was obscured by a red blur. He lifted it away with a small “oh!” to reveal a bunch of tulips in Gabriel's hand that he had shoved into the lens, smiling widely. Zontik giggled from behind the camera, making it shake slightly in his hands. Static cut the footage, and Zontik readily rushed to the tv to pause it.
“Did you buy flowers?” Romeo asked, searching the apartment for a fresh set of tulips but frowning when he couldn't see anything. Zontik giddily smiled past Romeo and Felix to Kuromaku behind the sofa, who then looked to Gabriel and gave him a nod. Gabriel stood up from his position on the floor to stand directly in front of the Hearts with his hands behind his back. He looked from one to the other before pulling out that same bouquet of flowers from the footage with a grin and waving it in front of Romeo and Felix.
The pair looked at each other, unmoving.
“Are these…for us?” Felix asked, his eyes flickering from the flowers to Gabriel's beaming face, to Zontik's expression slowly falling, to Romeo. Gabriel just nodded enthusiastically.
Romeo slowly reached out to take it from him, his fingers hesitantly curling around the stems, making the plastic around the bouquet crinkle deafeningly amidst the silence that had now descended upon the room,
“Thank you, this is really sweet. truly.” Romeo said as he inspected the flowers. He held them in front of Felix so that he could take a look as well. Zontik felt uneasy that the pair seemed so put off by this simple present. This had been his idea to surprise them after all.
“Is there something wrong?” Zontik asked with worry, watching Romeo and Felix hand the tulips between them like an active bomb.
“No, nothing's wrong, it's just a bit..random?” Felix explained as he looked over the flowers.
“What's random? Isn't that what couples are supposed to do?” Pik asked, finally making himself known in the room.
Felix made a sound that sounded similar to a scoff. “We aren't a couple!”
Somehow the room got even more quiet. The crinkle of the plastic in Romeo's lap made the silence even more excruciating to listen to.
“Wait, so you guys aren't dating?” Everyone turned to look at Fëdors horrified question and immediately back to the pair for an answer, who both sat with an equally horrified expression.
“What? No! Is that what people have been thinking about us?!” Felix gawked, his hands flying to his cheeks to cover the blush spreading over them, but the glow seeped through his fingertips, exposing him to the room.
“But what about all the stuff we just watched?” Waru spat, annoyed that withstanding his temptation to tease them when they were together all this time was in vain.
The two sat bewildered at his question. In truth, they couldn't explain any of it. All the small touches and longing stares they shared had felt so natural at the time that they hadn't even noticed how it might look to somebody looking in.
“And the way you guys are sitting now.” Kuromaku pointed out. The Hearts looked down at themselves. Somehow they had shifted so that they were practically on top of each other. Felix wrapped around Romeo's arm and Romeo's hand rested on his leg as his head resided on his shoulder. They quickly scrambled to separate from each other, but never strayed too far away.
“And all the..y’know..” Zontik couldn't get the words out, his own face being dusted with a light pink.
“What?” Romeo sat on the edge of the sofa, anticipating the next piece of evidence that would be thrown at them.
“..The kissing.”
“Well, that was all just hand kissing. You guys know me, I do that to everyone.” Romeo’s calm demeanour was slowly fading as more endless accusations were being thrown in their direction. He looked at Felix, whose red face had somehow turned even redder, he just stared blankly at him. “We’ve never gone further than that.” Romeo continued.
Zontik's eyes widened, he reached for the cable connecting the camera and the tv. “You might not want to watch the rest of the footage then..” he said quickly. But Romeo stopped him before he yanked the cord by running up to him and gently grabbing his arm.
“Wait, stop. Now I really want to see the rest of this footage." He slowly let go of him, going back to his seat as Felix tried his best not to look at Romeo. Zontik hesitantly put the camera back down, his finger hovered over the play button for just a second before he pressed it, the screen whirring back into motion once again.
Felix and Romeo were on the sofa, although Felix sat up awake as Romeo rested his head on his lap, sleeping peacefully. The camera panned from behind a corner, slight movements indicated that any time Felix looked up, the cameraman instinctively darted away before resuming its filming, careful to stay hidden from sight.
Felix stroked Romeo's hair as he slept, his fingers gently teasing the knots in his hair so as to not wake him up. Romeo noticeably smiled in his sleep, burying himself deeper into Felix's lap as his body warmed up to their touch. Felix looked down at him with soft eyes, a smile pulling at his own lips as he watched Romeo's every restful movement.
Felix's hand suddenly stopped moving through Romeo's hair and instead came to rest tenderly on his shoulder. He slowly used it to roll Romeo over onto his back, making him face the ceiling. The movement was gentle enough that Romeo didn't wake. Felix blinked slowly, savouring this moment of serenity, before he slowly leaned down and planted a kiss on the bridge of Romeo's nose. Romeo shuffled comfortably as Felix returned to his routine of stroking Romeo's hair before the tv turned to static and then to black, signifying the end of the tape.
Romeo slowly turned his head to Felix, who was looking down at the floor, refusing to give Romeo any sort of eye contact.
“You..” Romeo started, but he couldn’t get the words out.
Felix visibly tensed up, clutching the fabric of his jeans guiltily. The rest of the clones looked upon them, expecting an answer that would give the footage any sort of platonic explanation, but no one was more expectant than Romeo himself.
Romeo sighed, feeling the weight of all the stares in the room on them. “Maybe let's talk about this in private?”
The bouquet of tulips was left behind on the sofa as the two walked to a more secluded area, leaving the awkward mutters of the other clones behind them.
Romeo gently closed the bathroom door behind him, essentially trapping Felix to give an explanation. Felix faced the wall before finally building up the courage to turn around to look at Romeo.
“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn't have done that.” Felix stuttered, finally looking Romeo in the eye. Romeo didn't say anything for a second, letting the silence drag out. His expression didn't give Felix a sense of what he thought about all this either. “The thing is…” Felix clenched his fists as he struggled to compose his words. The blush on his cheeks never calmed down from when they were in the living room so he looked like a blazing mess at the moment. “I've been wanting to do that for so long.”
Romeo blinked rapidly upon hearing this, a pink dusting spreading across his cheeks. “Wanting to..?”
“To KISS you, Romeo!” Felix practically yelled. “Ugh, I wished that this could've happened some other way, I'm sorry.” He buried his face into his hands pathetically.
Romeo took a step towards him and held Felix's shoulders while softly closing the space between them. He removed Felix's hands from his face and made him look at him.
“Oh, Felix…” Romeo sighed, toying with his hair the same way Felix had toyed with his in the video. “You have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to say that.”
Felix barely had a second to look at Romeo's expression with shock before he was pulled into a kiss. Romeo cupped his cheeks the same way he did when they baked the cookies together, again they swayed in each other's presence to a rhythm only they could feel. Again the air between them was soft with every deepening touch. Again it felt like they soaked each other up, the bond converging until they could move as one body. Felix also held Romeo's cheeks, giggling and tightening his grip when Romeo tipped him slightly backwards as if they were in a tango dance of some sort.
Once they broke apart, they looked at each other again, foreheads touching, small smiles on their faces.
“Now what? What does this make us?” Felix asked quietly, grazing his nose against Romeo's as he ran his hands through the hair on the back of his head.
Romeo kissed him once more and chuckled quietly before responding.
“Now we go out there and thank them for the tulips.”