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When Kip gets back to the penthouse, he finds Scott slunk low on the sofa, the top of his head barely sticking up over the back of it. The television is on, but it’s a commercial, so Kip has no idea what Scott’s watching. And don’t get him started that Scott still pays for traditional cable television even though he also pays for every single streaming service known to man.
As the door closes behind him, Kip sets his bag on the bench next to the door and toes off his shoes. “I thought you had practice today.” Scott actually startles at Kip’s voice and quickly turns off the television, which is interesting. Was he doing something naughty, Kip hopes.
Scott sits up and leans over the back of the sofa. “Hey. It was optional. I wasn’t feeling it today.”
Okay. That’s concerning. “Are you okay? Do you feel sick?” Kip crosses to the sofa and feels Scott’s forehead. “You don’t feel feverish.”
“No, I’m fine. I just -”
“Just what?”
Scott sighs and lays down on the sofa. “It’s stupid.”
“Babe. What’s going on?” He circles the sofa and sits in front of Scott who scoots back to let him in. He runs his knuckles along Scott’s jaw.
“After you left for class, I had some time to kill.”
“Right?” Scott always has time to kill on days Kip goes to class. That’s nothing new.
“So I just…started flipping channels.”
Kip groans. He knows where this is going. Scott must have gotten sucked into something and couldn’t tear himself away. It doesn’t happen often, but it has happened. “What did you land on?”
Scott turns his face away from him and mumbles something.
“What was that?”
“Ancient Aliens.”
And now it’s Kip’s turn to sigh. He closes his eyes, pinches the bridge of his nose, and shakes his head. “You skipped practice for an Ancient Aliens marathon?”
“Well, when you put it like that….”
He’s resigned to his fate at this point. “What did you watch?”
Scott’s face lights up and he sits up, forcing Kip to the other end of the sofa. “The first one was on the Bermuda Triangle, which, to be fair, I heard a lot about growing up.”
“You know it’s one of the most heavily trafficked shipping and flight areas in the world, right? So, statistically speaking, disappearances there aren’t any higher than anywhere else in the world.”
“But they -”
“What else?”
Scott starts to get excited. “The next one was about the Moai and Ubaid figures. Stonehenge, the Carnac lines in France, and the ley lines of the earth. You know, large statues and structures they don’t have explanations for.”
“They, who?”
He ignores the question. “Then there was one about the Mesopotamian -”
“If you say Anunnaki -”
“- gods, Anunnaki, but they could be aliens.”
"Scott -”
“And then there was one about cultures who lived underground or in caves, and after that, there was a whole hour on Gobekli Tepe, which, holy shit that’s amazing. And did you know that Congress is investigating UAPs? They don’t call them UFOs anymore. I didn’t know that, either. There’s been a bunch of footage they’ve released -”
Kip’s got to nip this in the bud or else Scott’s going to go on for a while. He wasn’t kidding when he said he’s too intense. When Scott Hunter latches onto something, he really latches on to it. So, Kip does the only thing he can think of to get him to stop: he grabs Scott’s face and kisses him.
“Mmrph.”
When Kip pulls away, he rests his forehead on Scott’s. “I absolutely love you, you know that, right?”
“Of course.”
“Then please believe me when I say that I am more than happy to go into the history of any and all of that.”
“Okay?”
“But please, please don’t get your science from the aliens meme guy.”
Scott huffs a laugh. “Kip. I may not have gone to college, but I’m not stupid.”
That takes Kip by surprise. He pulls back to really look at Scott. “No, of course you’re not.”
“That show doesn’t just contradict itself from show to show, but from commercial break to commercial break.”
“So, you don’t think any of that happened?”
“Oh, my god. No. It’s like watching Young Frankenstein or Re-Animator. They’re fun, but I’m certainly not taking any science they have seriously.”
Kip’s body floods with relief. He’s not sure what he would have done if Scott had taken any of it seriously. “Oh, thank god. I was worried for a minute.”
“Don’t suppose you want to talk about the realism in The DaVinci Code?” Scott teases.
“If you mean that there isn’t any, then yes. We can do that.”
Scott lays back down and opens his arms for Kip to join him. Kip doesn’t hesitate. With their schedules, he’ll snuggle his boyfriend whenever he can. Scott envelops him in a hug as Kip settles in.
“Hey, babe?” Kip asks.
“Hmmm?”
“What’s Re-Animator? I mean, I can guess, but what is it?”
“Med student invents a serum to reanimate dead things. Based on a Lovecraft story. Classic 80s horror. We should watch it.”
“Lovecraft, you say? Could be interesting.”
“There you go. Join me in the crazy.” He kisses the top of Kip’s head.
“You’re not crazy, Scott.”
“No, I know. The league tests for that.”
They lay like that for several minutes, just enjoying each other’s company. Kip feels Scott’s chest move like he laughed, but didn’t hear him make any noise. “What?”
“What are your thoughts on cryptids?”