Chapter Text
It was a pretty hot day. It was that time of year right before summer starts inching towards autumn; warm and humid, but the occasional breeze serves as a reprieve. The sun was shining and clouds floated lazily across the blue.
Sword melted back into a defensive stance after another successful strike, sweaty and breathing hard. His boots scuffed the ground, kicking up a little dirt. He shifted his grip on his gear, squinting his eyes in the sunlight. He relaxed once his dad mentor spoke.
“You did well today,” Venomshank said, lowering his own gear and whisking it out of sight. Sword let out a grateful huff of warm air, doing the same with his own sword. Then, he pumped his fist in the air in victory, then lowering it to wipe the sweat off his brow. Venomshank walked over, patted him on the shoulder, then went inside their home. Sword followed right behind him, almost like a feathery puppy.
Sword shut the door to his room after going upstairs, wriggling out of his sweat-sticky training clothes and putting on a shirt and some shorts. Sisyphus made himself known with a happy little “squawk!”
“Hello to you too Sisyphus!” Sword replied. He meandered over to and slumped in his hammock in front of a conveniently-placed fan. The inphernal ran a hand through his hair, un-sticking his bangs from his forehead. Scratching the feathers on his back, Sword fumbled for his phone he left charging on the nightstand. The phone unlocked as Sword put in his password, fingers tapping the screen from muscle memory.
Sword, sheltered as he is, doesn't happen to have a plethora of friends, and consequently did not have a whole bunch of messages waiting for him. That doesn't mean he had none though, he had one from Medkit reminding him to drink water (heat stroke is bad.) Sword opened the thread for Rocket, his best-friend turned boyfriend (!!!!)
Rocket (9:22 am): dude it is hot as PHUCK today
Rocket (9:23 am): im literally just at the shop and im already sweating istg
Rocket (9:23 am): KJSFBEFAILWULIWABFLISDJBKVJBIB
Rocket (10:37 am): [insert shot-form social media link of your choice here]
Rocket (11:48 am): hey
Rocket (11:48 am): u done with that training thing today yet??
Rocket (11:49 am): plz im bored af
Rocket (11:49 am): AND ITS STILL HOT LIKE A MOTHER PHUCKER
Rocket (11:55 am): dude my dads weirdo friend just showed up blegh
Rocket (11:55 am): its so awkward bro
Sword (12:12 pm): hiiiiiiiiiiiiiii
Sword (12:12 pm): yeah i jus got done :D
Sword (12:12 pm): wanna go do sometubn?
Sword (12:12 pm): *something
Rocket (12:13 pm): no
Rocket (12:13 pm): . . .
Rocket (12:13 pm): ofc i do dummy
Rocket (12:13 pm): when have i ever not?
Sword (12:14 pm): YAY
Sword (12:14 pm): ok coolcool
Sword (12:15 pm): ice cream?
Sword (12:15 pm): plz? :>
Sword (12:15 pm): its so hot lol
Rocket (12:15 pm): HELL YEAH
Rocket (12:15 pm): lets go now
Rocket (12:16 pm): normal spot?
Sword (12:16 pm): yeh
Sword (12:16 pm): yeah
Sword (12:16 pm): see ya in a bit <3
Rocket (12:17 pm) ✌️
Sword sat up in his hammock, the happy kicking of his feet slowing to a halt. Not one to ever go somewhere without his helmet, he fixed his outfit up a little: basically his normal look but without the cape. Heavy dark fabric? Not in this weather.
Sisyphus looked at Sword and squaked at the offending inphernal. Sword gave him some beak scritches whilst saying “who is the best birb ever?” The bird in question crowed happily.
Sword flung open his bedroom door and bounded like a jackalope down the stairs- not one, not two, but three stairs at a time! He landed with a thud, and went straight for the door. The inphernal just had his hand on the doorknob when-
“Sword.” The accused froze in his tracks, akin to a deer in headlights if the deer was a 24-year old feathered sunshine-incarnate. Venomshank had stood up from where he was sitting on the couch.
“Where are you going?” He said with that calm, but mildly annoyed, tone that Sword figured was one step away from an angry mentor.
“Uh, me and Rocket are going to get some ice cream- same place we normally go. Scoopy's.” Sword answered. He appreciated Venomshank’s guidance, he really did, but sometimes it was really stifling. What was protecting him often felt more like it was trapping him in a cage. Sword may have been naive, definitely sheltered, but he is not stupid. He knows he's missing a lot, but he's determined to keep branching out further into the inpherno. The negative emotions manifested as a little pang in his chest, but as soon as they came, they left. Sword shook them away with a smile.
“Just be carefu-” Venomshank started, but not before Sword cut him off.
“Yes, I know, be careful, Crossroads is safe but its still dangerous.” Sword said, a little cheekily, then cut back once he felt the weight of venomshank's stare (glare) on him. “I have my phone, I'll have Rocket.” Sword didn't notice that his smile grew as soon as he said Rocket's name, maybe if he did, he would have tried to hide it. “Ill text you, don't worry!”
Venomshank raised an eyebrow behind the mask (its aura so strong we can just feel it), then shook his head. He moved to sit back down, Sisyphus flying downstairs to perch on his shoulder.
“Goodbye Sword.”
“Bye d- Venomshank!!”
◇ ◇ ◇
Sword had been walking at a brisk pace, but sprinted towards Rocket once he saw the other inphernal standing there. Rocket looked up from his phone, smiled at Sword, then failed to move out of the way of Sword's hug attack.
“Hi Rocket!!” Sword chirped happily, barreling into his partner and wrapping him in his arms. The sun, the omnipresent observer, continued to share its warmth with the couple.
“Ugh not in this heat dummy,” Rocket snapped without malice, looping his arm without the phone around Sword in return. Sword gave Rocket a quick peck on the cheek, laughing as the latter turned pink.
“Come on.” Rocket shoved away from Sword, giving him a playful punch on the shoulder. “Lets just get this ice cream already.”
The line, surprisingly, wasn't that long, despite the temperature. Rocket ended up ordering chocolate, while Sword asked “to be surprised." They both got a double scoop in a waffle cone- the best cone, hands down, no questions asked.
Rocket pulled out some Bux to pay, like he always did, while Sword grabbed a piece of chalk from the bin next to the receiving window. He drew a smiley face, of course, then a cute little creature that somewhat resembled a bird. Rocket came to stand behind his boyfriend, giving him some shade from the beating sun as he doodled. They both looked up towards the window as their order number was called.
“Enjoy and have a fantastic day!” Said the chipper inphernal who handed them their orders. “Oh the surprise flavor is cotton candy, if you couldn't tell.” She nodded at the bright pink-and-blue swirls of Sword's ice cream.
“Nice, thanks!” Sword replied, grinning. He took a lick before grabbing Rocket's hand and making a beeline for a table in the shade. He plopped down, Rocket taking a seat next to him.
“Cotton candy. Seems fitting for you lmao ” Rocket said taking a bite out of his- taking a WHAT?! Sword gasped dramatically at the borderline crime.
“I still can't believe you do that you monster!” Rocket looked mildly offended for a hot second, then snapped his pointy teeth at Sword in a grin.
“Oh come on, it's not that bad!” He said accompanied by a laugh and more ice cream biting.
“Its criminal is what it is.” Sword huffed, taking a nice, normal lick of his own cone. They continued bantering back and forth, not as much as they normally did though. Heat will do that for you: make you a bit sluggish and slow things down. However, when they were both about half-way done with their cold treats, Sword asked:
“Can I try some of your flavor?”
“Only if you let me have some of yours too,” Rocket quipped back, giving Sword a side-eye.
Sword grinned, gently grabbed Rocket's chin, turning it towards him and kissing him. Rocket let out a little surprised squeak, then leaned into the kiss. It was soft, and they could taste the rich chocolate and the sweet sugary cotton candy on each other's lips. Sword gently moved his mouth across Rocket's, hand moving to cup his cheek as he did. The kiss felt like a minute, when in reality it was only a fraction of that time. Maybe 10 seconds at most. But still, that was enough time to turn Rocket as red as Sword's horns. Not that Sword was any better either- kissing your handsome boyfriend took a lot of courage. Pink dusted his cheeks like powdered sugar on a cake.
Rocket sat frozen for a minute, then in a split second took a massive CHOMP out of Sword's ice cream.
“Hey!” Sword said indignantly. “Thats my ice cream!” He pulled what was left of his cone out of Rocket's reach.
“I payed for it!” The blue horned infernal retorted in return. “Therefore its mine anyways.” Sword stared at him, the. Held out the now-drippy cone.
“I mean, you can have it if you want.” He said with a shrug. Rocket shook his head, laughed and took one of the last bites of his own.
“Keep it. Finish your ice cream man.” He said. Sword grinned and went back to what was left of his ice cream. They sat there in comfortable silence for a few minutes, each finishing their ice cream.
“Well,” Sword said. “I don't want to be in debt to you-” Rocket snorted and Sword glared. Rocket shut up. He hated how one look from that stupidly cute inphernal made his brain short-circut.
“So,” Sword continued. “I guess I must pay you back.” He blinked in that overly-flirtatious way. “I just so happen to have an infinite supply of kisses.” He smiled at Rocket.
“Hmm,” Rocket hummed, tapping his chin thoughtfully, turning his torso to face his partner. “I suppose that will suffice,” he conceded with a smirk.
Sword grabbed Rocket's cheeks again, smooshing their faces together in a sugary-sweet kiss. They pulled apart, resting their foreheads together before Rocket tilted his head in for another. And another. Sword giggled happily against his mouth, all full of sunshine and happiness.
“Ugh its still to hot for this,” Rocket said, pulling away. “Plus we dont wanna ‘disturb the children’ with our PDA,” he said with an eye roll. Sword snorted a laugh, standing up.
“Lets go then!” He reached a hand out. Rocket took it with his non-prosthetic hand, swinging his legs around to push up from the table.
“We need to properly wash our hands anyway. Mine are sticky.” Sword spoke.
“We can have sticky hands together or something cheesy like that.” Rocket replied with a small stretch.
“Wanna stop by my place on the way home? We have AC.” He squeezed Sword's hand.
“Of course!!” Sword stated, adjusting his helmet.
“Lets go then,” Rocket said.
So they walked to Rocket's, sun shining down on them warmly. But the warmth of the sun wasn't nearly on par with the warmth between the two lovers, their joined hands a testament to the fact. They ended up taking a nap together in the AC, forgetting to tell Venomshank that Sword was at Rocket's. Needless to say that did not go over well, given neither of Sword's people were too fond of each other. But at the end of the hot day, it was a pretty great day.