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Pluto mussed up his hair once again and checked his closet for the sixth time as if anything new had appeared.
Nothing had.
“You look great,” Ada said from where she was lying on his bed, cell phone in hand as she texted her girlfriend. “Can I send Ella this video I just took of you spending ten minutes doing nothing to your hair, by the way?”
“No,” Pluto hissed, hearing the unmistakable sound of a message being sent right after.
“Oops.”
Pluto sighed and moved another strand of hair to the other side of his head before changing his mind and switching it back.
“Oh my GOD, this is getting boring,” Ada grumbled.
“You don’t have to be here,” Pluto snapped. “It’s not my job to entertain you.”
“It literally is? I pay you to do that?”
“No the hell you do not.”
“I pay you with my presence.”
“I can see why Prospero didn’t want to date you,” Pluto said, finally pulling his eyes away from the mirror to look at his friend, who gasped in offence.
“You know the rule! We don’t-“
“Bring up the crush on Prospero, okay, okay,” Pluto said, finally relaxing a tad and snickering.
“Pluto!” Said previous crush called from downstairs, Prospero being the mother hen he was as usual. “If you want a ride to your date, I’m leaving now.”
“IT’S NOT A DATE!” Pluto shouted back down, ignoring Ada’s cackles as he rushed out of his room and downstairs, pulling on his favourite coat and shoes, plus a pair of sleeveless gloves before hurrying outside to meet Prospero on the porch.
“It’s not a date,” he repeated, making his taller friend sigh.
“I don’t really care all that much,” Prospero informed him, making Pluto roll his eyes and follow his roommate into their shared car, glaring when Prospero reminded him to put his seatbelt on.
“I’m not a child,” Pluto hissed.
“You act like one.” Prospero shot off a quick text to remind Ada to lock the door when she left (something she frequently forgot) and started to drive off while Pluto checked his reflection again in the rearview mirror.
The two drove in a comfortable silence, seeing as Pluto did not want to talk about the fact he was about to basically go out on a (one-sided) date with someone who was practically his older brother, and Prospero likely didn’t want to hear about it either.
He’d listened to Pluto ramble on about Duke for hours on end many times before already.
“Have fun,” Prospero said when they reached the aquarium and Pluto hopped out of the car.
“Yeah, whatever, mum,” Pluto teased, earning another sigh before Prospero drove off to meet up with his friend Annabel for tea like they did every Saturday.
And then Pluto was on his own.
He turned to gaze up at the large building that he was about to spend the next few hours in with Duke motherfucking Laurent and swallowed nervously, checking his watch to find he was fifteen minutes early. (Because of course Prospero dropped him off fifteen minutes early.)
He walked in and nodded at the cashier when they waved, going to sit down in the waiting area to wait for Duke, who probably wouldn’t be there for another half hour, seeing as he was never on time for anything. Nearly every day he’d come rushing into the English course him and Pluto shared halfway through the lesson, and from what Lenore had told him, he was late for the classes they shared as well.
And those were college courses that Duke had PAID for- this friendly hangout was much less important, surely.
“Pluto!”
“Ack!”
Duke snickered. “Désole, I forgot how easily you scare.”
“O—oh no, it’s okay! I- you just… surprised me,” Pluto mumbled, shoving his hands into the pockets of his ripped black jeans.
“A good surprise,” Duke asked, wrapping his hand around Pluto’s. “Shall we?”
He gestured towards the front as Pluto tried to remind himself that this was a hangout.
As friends.
...
Friends held hands sometimes.
“Okay, so I did some research and apparently in ten minutes, they’re going to feed the otters, and then at noon it’s- Why are you laughing at me!?”
Pluto and Duke stood at the entrance to the exhibits, Pluto holding a sheet of paper in his hand with a numbered list of the things he’d decided would be the most enjoyable.
Duke did not seem to be impressed, as he laughed again and snatched the paper from Pluto’s hands (“Hey!”), reading it over quickly before crumpling it up and throwing it in the nearest trash can.
“Duke!” Pluto exclaimed. “Wha- why’d you-”
“You don’t have to plan everything out,” Duke teased, grabbing Pluto’s hand again and making his face heat up. “Let’s just enjoy our date, spend time together, ouais?”
He started walking towards the jellyfish, dragging Pluto along behind him as he excitedly began saying how excited he was to see the seals so he could swear a whole lot and pretend he was speaking French as if it was the funniest thing ever.
Pluto followed as best he could, mind still reeling.
Had Duke said date? Or had he heard that wrong?
Maybe he’d said they should just enjoy their day, because Duke wouldn’t- he wouldn’t- he’d been the one who asked if Pluto wanted to go to the aquarium, and he would never have asked Pluto out.
Not in a million years.
“Those otters were adorable,” Pluto said, smiling as he and Duke left the area containing the sea mammals.
“Mais pas si adorable que toi, minou,” Duke declared, grinning when Pluto looked at him in confusion. “Look it up,” he said simply.
Pluto rolled his eyes. “So I can hear another insult in a different language? I’ll pass.”
Duke laughed awkwardly as if Pluto was joking, looking slightly hurt for some reason. “What did you want to see next?” the Frenchman asked.
“Well, I had it written down…” Pluto glared affectionately at Duke when he laughed. “But I guess if I had to pick, the sharks?” Duke made a disgusted face and Pluto laughed. “What, you're scared of getting eaten?”
“If I’m getting eaten, ca va etre pars toi, d'accord?” Duke said, putting his arm around Pluto’s shoulder and walking towards the area where the sharks were.
“Huh?”
“...I said I’m not scared. Allons-y.”
“Duke, that hurts,” Pluto teased, referencing how tightly his friend was grasping his hand.
“Shut. They might hear you,” Duke muttered, shoulders hunched up as he warily glared at the sharks in the tunnel around them. “Eugh. Why are their teeth so large?”
“All the better to eat you with,” Pluto joked.
He then practically jumped out of his skin when Duke snickered and then bit his fucking earlobe.
“My dear~” the Frenchman finished, the smirk quickly disappearing off his face when another shark swam over top of them. “C’mon, let’s go find those crabs with the long-ass legs.”
Duke snickered again at Pluto (who was a broken, blushing mess at the moment), and dragged him away from the tunnel, talking about some teacher who’d pissed him off recently.
Friends bite their friends, friends bite their friends, that’s normal, he’s not flirting with me, that’s-
“Pluto, I’m not dragging you through this whole aquarium! Vite!”
“Favorite animal?” Duke asked as he pushed open the exit door, bowing dramatically as Pluto went through.
“Hm,” Pluto said. “Probably the sharks.” He felt his face heat up at just the thought of it, and quickly clarified to Duke so he wouldn’t seem weird. “Uh- funny joke, when you bit me.” He laughed awkwardly, and Duke raised an eyebrow at him, opening his mouth to say something before quickly shutting it again and smiling.
“What was your favorite part?” Pluto asked, to which Duke took his hand again and tapped his chin in thought.
“Hm. I liked seeing mon minou. He's my favorite animal of all time, to be completely honest.”
Pluto laughed awkwardly again, wishing he wouldn’t blush so hard whenever Duke paid him a friendly compliment.
He knew that he was “mon minou”, whatever that meant, so that meant Duke liked seeing him.
“Yeh, it was good to see you too,” Pluto replied, a genuine smile on his face. He reached into his pocket to check his phone for the time, hissing when he saw how late it was. “Aw, feck. I’m getting picked up soon.”
Duke squeezed his hand. “You could come over to my place for the night. If you’d like. And I’ll drive us to school tomorrow."
Thanks, but if I have to spend any more time with you I won’t be able to stop myself from kissing you.
“...Eh, I dunno. I have a test tomorrow that I need to study for a bit more.”
(He’d already studied plenty, but Duke didn’t need to know that.)
“Ah,” Duke said, seeming disappointed for some reason as if he hadn’t already spent enough time with Pluto. Which he had, surely. “D’accord. Bien, alors, I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“See you,” Pluto said, about to release his hand from Duke’s grip when the Frenchman pulled him closer so their mouths were almost touching, a grin on his face and a hand around Pluto’s back.
“What, I don’t get a goodnight kiss from my boyfriend?”
Pluto’s eyes widened. “You- your-”
Duke’s eyes widened as well, although seemingly for a different reason.
“Ah- j’suis désole- I didn’t ask first.” He laughed awkwardly and tried again. “Well, I know it’s only our first real date, but I figured, since we both like each other, we could try being boyfriends?”
Pluto blinked.
“Or we could go out a bit more, if you don’t want to label it just yet. Or ever! If you don’t ever want to label it, that’s-”
“This was a date?!” Pluto exclaimed, trying furiously to remember when Duke had ever mentioned that when he’d asked if Pluto wanted to go to the aquarium with him.
Duke’s brows furrowed. “Yes? Are you- are you being serious?”
Pluto swallowed. “I- ehm, I didn’t realize you liked me as more than… a friend.”
Duke took a deep breath. “Pluto. I’ve been flirting with you all day!”
“I thought that was just you being friendly!”
“We’ve been friends for months now, and you think that’s me ‘just being friendly’?!”
“I- Yeah!?”
Duke paused. “So you don’t want to go out with me?”
Pluto’s face flushed again, making Duke instantly perk up. “I- uhm, well, I didn’t say that…”
“Perfect,” Duke decided. “So, about that kiss…?”
Pluto grinned. “I- uhm, sur-” he was barely finished his sentence before Duke greedily pulled him in, kissing him once hard enough to leave a mark, and pulling away for breath again before going back for one more.
“Can we go out for lunch tomorrow, amour? As a real date?” Duke asked, knowing full well Pluto was too dumbfounded to answer and taking this as a yes, smirking and pressing another kiss to his forehead when a honk interrupted the two from the parking lot.
Duke groaned and shot daggers at Prospero’s car, relenting and taking his hands off Pluto’s shoulders after placing a final kiss on his lips and grinning.
“I’ll see you tomorrow, minou,” he said with a wave which Pluto returned dumbly, the Frenchman walking the opposite direction to his car as Pluto stared after him.
"...Bye, Duke."
Honk!
“Pluto, get your ass in here right now! I need my beauty rest!” Ada yelled from across the parking lot, causing Pluto’s smile to instantly dissipate as he turned around to yell back some insults at her and run towards the car.
“So~” Ada teased from the passenger seat as Pluto buckled himself in and Prospero adjusted the rearview mirror. “How’d it go?”
“Fine.” Pluto picked at his cuticles, glad it was dark out so neither of his roommates could see he was blushing. “Let’s go.”
“Glad you two finally kissed,” Ada sang, sticking her tongue out when Pluto glared at her.
“Why were you watching us, you wanker?!”
“Can we not talk about this?” Prospero said as he turned the car on.“I just had dinner, and I’d prefer to keep it in my stomach.”
Ada snickered. “I think Pluto would prefer to keep Duke’s tongue inside his-”
“Start the fucking car!”