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The day has finally arrived.Sal woke up earlier than usual, get readied and headed out of the front door. He then spotted a tall figure at a distance right away. The person was carrying a suitcase and waving at Sal as he walked toward him."You got all your stuff here right? Did you double check?” It was rather cold out, mid January with the snow and all that. Sal was shaking with only a sweater on as he speak.“Yeah I triple checked, don’t worry dude.” Sal smiled under his prosthetic face when Larry finger gunned at him.Compared to Sal, Larry was dressed appropriately for the harsh weather. Sal wondered if Larry was forced to wear this much layers of clothes by his mom. The most clothes he has seen his best friend put on was probably only two layers. A T-shirt and a sweater on top, nothing else.The funny thing was, he never complained about the temperature. Even at times, when their fingers would touch, such as when one would pass a cigarette to the other outside Addison apartment, the taller boy’s hand was always warm for some unknown reason.“Good. Now would you hurry up. I’m freezing as hell.” The blue haired held tight to his body, words came out trembling. He saw the boy in front of him grinned like a fool and increased his speed in walking.Once they were inside the house. They entered what will soon be Larry’s room and began to unpack his things right away. Larry had much less stuff than what Sal expected, which was a relief. Boxes after boxes, the stuff inside were mostly band merchandise, like T-shirts and posters. A lot of them were also art supplies, easels, paint brushes, canvases, and such. He also brought his bean bags. God, Sal could already imagine chilling in his room everyday and lie lazily on those things.“Dude look, our old pictures and drawings of each other!” Larry excitedly pulled out a stack of wrinkled sheets of paper and photos. Sal blinked, how could he almost forget those?They spent an hour reminiscing the fond memories of their youthful years. Both of their face hurt due to an excessive amount of laughing and smiling. After the unpacking stage was done, Sal went into the kitchen and poured both of them some fresh hot coffee.“I was so excited I barely slept last night. The caffeine in this thing better help me get through the day.” Sal actually hated the taste of black coffee, but he just needed some to help keep himself awake.“Same, dude.” Larry looked over Sal’s head and lifted a hand up. “Morning, Todd.”Todd walked downstairs sloppily and greeted with them with sleepy eyes. He yawned as soon as he sat down beside them. “Welcome to your new home, Larry. And um, what time is it?”“It’s ten thirty already, were you up late last night?” Sal asked. He had known well about Todd’s routine. The redhead usually get out of bed around seven or eight in the morning to either go to class, work, or take care of some chores, even during weekends.Cheeks slightly flushed, Todd scratched his beard anxiously. “Well, y’know…”“‘Kay,” Sal brought one of his hands up in an instant, and poured Todd a cup of coffee while Larry stared at him, confused. “Got you, here.”Todd would spill the truth if Larry wasn’t there. He like the dude a lot as a friend, in fact.  But Todd was just not used to having him around in their place. As soon as the redhead brought the mug close to his lips, another yawn was heard from the distance. That was when Larry’s face lit up in realization. Sal hastily kicked him with his feet before he could blurt out anything.“Oh, hey there, Larry, almost forgot that you’re moving here today!” Neil was stepping downstairs, already had a mug in his hand, perhaps cold coffee left over from last evening.Unlike Todd, who was still in his pajamas, Neil dressed in a nice, clean style, like how he normally would. Sal rolled his left eye when he noticed the big grin Larry had on his face before he waved back at Neil.Neil got rid of the nasty cold coffee by the sink and poured himself a new one, then walked over to Todd and kissed him on the cheek. “Good morning, love.”The other two boys were quiet. To be exact, they felt awkward, and had no idea where to place their eyes.Lucky for them, soon the lovebirds had left the house to get some groceries. They were the ones who does the cooking in this house, especially Neil, who was incredibly good at it. While for Sal, and now for Larry too, their responsibility was to wash the dishes. As for cleaning the house, Todd and Neil loved doing that so they took care most of it. Sal sometimes help out too when he had nothing better to do.The two boys discussed about what to do this weekend while trying very hard to gulp down the bitter black liquid. Both of them were too lazy to think about actually looking for a college and plan out their future, and too active to lie down all day and be useless. At one point, the blue haired boy wanted to bring up the topic of supernatural, but reminded himself that both him and Larry were bothered by night terrors these days. On certain nights, Sal would grab his walkie talkie off the nightstand and tell his best friend about the horrifying things in his dreams.That was how at one point Larry confessed to him about having the same trouble. It was only then Sal assumed that Larry would probably never tell him about it if he didn’t bring up the topic at all. Sal knew his best friend for years now, he understood well of how the other hated to make the people he care worry in anyway, which only provoked more fear and concern in his friend.Speaking of nightmares, Sal felt the need to ask Larry if he will be okay at night.“Damn dude, thanks for mentioning, if I’m seriously terrified I might just have to come over to your room to sleep, if that’s even okay with you.”Sal nodded, “Totally fine, just like old days.” He actually meant only approximately a month ago, that was when Larry was busy with the moving stuff, before that they would have occasional sleepovers like best bros.“Cool.” Larry smiled widely and his eyes wrinkled, Sal always love that small detail about him.Eventually, the caffeine inside their bodies ran out and drowsiness hit them. They lied on the bean bags and took a nap, a rather long one.Sal opened his eyes first, alarmed, he took out his phone to check the time, it was nearly five in the afternoon. The entire room was dim without sunlight. He tried to wake Larry by shaking his body, but it didn’t work.As Sal was about to leave the room to find Gizmo, a low grumble was heard behind his back. He turned around and saw Larry tossing and turning on the bean bag, who eventually fell right onto the floor.Sal turned on the light and moved closer toward his best friend to observe his odd state. The friend who lied dead on the floor was sobbing, beads of sweat gradually forming on his forehead. Soon, Larry’s hands were waving madly in the air with inconsistent motions. The sobbing had also turned into louder, angrier wails and groans, the noises he made were full of sadness and despair.“Larry, wake up! Larry!!” Sal almost had to really scream at his friend before he opened his eyes in a expression of fear, gasping for breath as hot tears streamed down his flushed cheeks. The brunet’s eyes desperately searched for something, until they remained still in his best friend’s direction. The tears finally ceased its way from falling.Larry grasped onto Sal’s black shirt, he frowned in such a way that Sal had never seen before, it scared him as to what could possibly bring his friend to such pain.“Sal….” Larry’s voice was broken, pale lips trembled as he spoke. Sal had never seen him sound and look so vulnerable in front of him.The grip tightened as he continued, “I-I had a nightmare...”Yes, Sal was fully aware of that.He waited patiently as Larry attempted to gather his words, “T-There was this demon or something...It found a way to possess you, and you…..” He inhaled deeply before he began to stutter and shake uncontrollably.“You...the possessed you killed all of your family and friends, and everyone living in Addison apartment….” The brunet shakily placed his face into his palms, words began to come out muffled. “But somehow...I could feel that the real you inside the body was suffering in extreme sadness, I wanted to help you...to save you so badly, but I don’t know how and I tried and tried and tried . In the end, you didn’t even know who I am, no, what I mean is...the fake you didn’t recognize me, and then you left me without saying anything. ”Larry shook his head before continuing, “And I-I don’t remember what happened to me afterwards. But...I think somehow I died? And I was trapped inside the tree house…..I-I don’t know, everything felt so real, much more realistic than the previous dreams I had for the past month. I thought that I might be in some kind of alternate universe or something.”After explaining the nightmare, Larry brought his knees up to his chest and buried his face in it like a frightened child, in contrary to his tall figure.Sal swore he once had a dream with a somewhat similar plot to Larry’s, but then decided that it was not the right time to talk about it. While remaining silent, Sal gently wrapped his arms around Larry, hoping to comfort him in some way.“Don’t ever leave me, Sal...” His voice was so subtle and frail, as if it might shatter like glass within a second.  “Please…”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

“Hey, ” Sal softly whispered into his ears. “I would never leave you, okay?”Larry slowly looked up at the boy beside him, his eyes were still red from crying. He leaned into Sal’s hug in search for more comfort and warmth, the position lasted for about two minutes before someone knocked at the door.After giving Larry a little pat on the back, Sal rushed toward the door to open only a gap, he peeked out ro see Todd with a worried expression on his face.“Hey, is everything okay?” Todd whispered as he took a quick glance at the brunet, who still had his forehead in his arms.“Yeah. It’s um...sort of related to the red-eyed demon, I will talk to you about it some other time, alright?” Sal whispered back, hoping that Larry didn’t hear what he just said.Todd nodded and walked away. The blue haired boy sighed softly as he approached Larry once again.“Larry, you should head out for some fresh air, I’ll come along. No pressure though.” Much to his surprise, Larry stood up from his spot and stretched his arms out.“You’re right, dude, let’s go.”This time, Sal remembered to put on his winter jacket and a scarf, and his friend did the opposite, he only wore two layers, in contrast to how much clothes he had put on in the morning. Sal wanted to go visit the treehouse so badly, but he decided that he should just wait until the weather would be more bearable, for him, specifically.They walked alongside each other, not bothered when each of their steps were inches deep into the snow. They weren't even wearing snow boots.The truth was, at the moment they were just happy to be with each other, having a walk out in the cold and remaining silent all the way to enjoy each other's company.The silence broke after ten minutes of intentionally soaking their shoes in snow. The taller one stopped to reach into his pocket, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes.“Shit,” He cursed under his breath, “Forgot to bring my lighter.”Sal nodded and pulled out his own lighter.“Ah, you're truly a life savior.” Larry waited for the boy beside him to loosen the lower strap of his mask before he gave a cigarette to him.White clouds of smoke surrounded their face as they walk home. An unexpected amount of cold wind sneaked into Sal's prosthetic, he felt his face began to go numb as seconds passed by.Todd and Neil didn’t allow Sal to smoke inside the house, so he always have to do it outside. Though due to the extreme weather lately, he didn't want to head outside at all.Now along with his bestie Larry, everything could be ignored at the moment, despite how his fingers were frozen already, crimson tinted on the slim features.The smell of cooked pasta filled the house. There stood Todd in the kitchen, stirring a pot until he was interrupted by the sound of front door opening.“Hey wait!!” The redhead nearly screamed, he pointed at the two boys’ shoes. “Take those off before you step into the house.”Todd stood in front of them with his green apron on, he had his arms crossed in front of his chest while glaring at them until they’ve neatly placed their wet shoes on the cabinet at the entrance.“Actually you know what,” Larry took his shoes out again, “I might just get rid of these, it’s time for new ones anyway.”“Oh, I should do that too. Mine are pretty shitty, look at how easily I ruined them.” Sal did the same as his friend, he was secretly glad that he didn’t put on his favorite blue shoes earlier.Todd shrugged, he returned to his pot with a ‘sure, whatever’ expression written on his face.After everyone had their dinner. The brunet returned to his room to make a call to his mom. It wasn't like he really had anything to say, but he just wanted to make sure Lisa know he was doing alright and won't be missing her too much. At one point he almost brought up his nightmare, but swallowed it back down when he imagined how worried Lisa would be if she know about it.Later that night, Sal chilled in Larry's room and listened to some Sanity's Fall songs from the other's CD player.“Damn, I really love this one, perhaps my favorite song from all the albums.” Sal shouted over the music.“Oh yeah?” Larry smirked as he turn up the volume, hoping the couple upstairs wouldn't come down and complain about it.“Yeah, and oh do you remember what happened last time when we had this on?” Sal stopped whipping his long hair into the air. Strands of blue hair escaped the straps of his mask and fell beside his face, the expression was unreadable under the prosthetic.“Well, um...I don't think I could forget about that.” Larry ceased his air guitar motions with his hands, deep brown eyes met sky blue ones momentarily before moving onto the ground.
How could he possibly forget, the unforgettable beauty. The beauty that lies under the flat, emotionless prosthetic face.
It happened half a year ago, when both of them were still in high school. Larry remembered all the details on that one evening. When Sanity's Fall's new album just came out and the two boys were so excited they almost destroyed the ceiling by throwing random stuff they see in the taller boy's room.The boys were busy headbanging so hard they didn’t notice how the shorter one's mask flew right off and whacked Larry straight in the face. The first thing the brunet felt was the sharp pain coming from the bridge of his nose, and then something wet flowing down from his nostril. Sal panicked, he apologized about three times before searching anxiously around the room to find something to stop the bleeding.When Sal finally used some napkins found in a pile of painting supplies to stuff it in Larry’s nose. He went on without the prosthetic for a while until he noticed the blank stare coming from the taller boy in front of him.
His face, his real face. There were scars varying in sizes, depth, colors, and shapes, covering up most of the boy’s pale face. Those marks spoke about the misfortune that happened in his younger years, which instantly made Larry’s heart clench.

There were many other delicate details. For instance, his right eye was glossy and reflective, Larry assumed it may be made out of glass. Unlike the good eye, it remained still and inanimate as it was. The facial features however, were what Larry believed would be the closest adjective he could think of to describeーangelic.

The overall structure of the face and the complementary parts were so fine and beautiful in its unique way, such as how the severely scarred lips shape when they open or close, and how the long lashes shine when the left eye blink.
Before the incident happened, Larry used to imagine what Sal Fisher look like under the white mask from time to time. He expected something extremely brutal and dark underneath. He even did some rough sketches of the real Sal in his sketchbook everytime he came up with better, cooler ideas.The tall boy always wondered if Sal smile, cry, frown, and make all kinds of expressions just like an average person. He wanted to see his best friend open up to him so badly, but he knew that he shouldn’t attempt to discover all those secrets by himself, that would be extremely disrespectful, which would most likely put himself in the high risk of losing friendship with Sal. Larry would not even dare to imagine how his life will be like without having the blue haired boy beside him. The thought alone scared him.However, at the time he finally got to see Sal without the prosthetic, everything was going unexpectedly for both of them.All Larry managed to say was ‘You're pretty', that was literally the only remark he made.However, the brunet didn't know what to do or say when those hot streaks of tears fell down so suddenly. It was a bad decision to not do anything now that he thought of it. He blamed himself for not comforting his best friend when he needed it.The brunet snapped back to reality. The first thing he noticed was how the music has quieted down. All of a sudden, he found it difficult to look at Sal, despite that he still had his mask on.“But why did you cry?”“Because you didn't look away.” Sal’s voice became smaller, his gaze fixed on the ground.As the rest of the song played until the end, Larry coughed awkwardly, a blush creeping up his face. “Remember what I said? I think you’re-”“Pretty?” Sal scoffed, shaking his head, eyes still refusing to meet Larry’s. “That’s ridiculous.”"No it’s not,” Larry surprised himself when those three words blurted out before he realize it. “It’s been on my mind for a long time, ever since I saw your real face. I know it must be hard for you, but please just let me tell you this one thing…”He seemed frustrated. Scratching his head anxiously as he spoke. And Sal could tell just how much his friend was trying."Okay, go on." Sal ignored the sweat forming on his palms as he waited for his friend to spill out the truth. The terrifying truth of how Larry really thought about his face.Larry’s hands were shaking a little as he held onto his forehead, “So uh, what I meant by ‘pretty’ was...your face is cool. I mean like the scars and shit? They’re sick as fuck! Dude, you might disagree with me, but trust me that’s really what I think! And um...uh…” The brunet cracked his knuckles nervously. He wanted to say ‘you’re beautiful’, in its literal sense, and failed. “I wish I get to see more of your face in the future too.”“What?” Sal nearly choked on his saliva, he thought he misheard everything of what the person in front of him just said. He somehow turned his shock into a lighthearted chuckle. “You serious?”“Yea, dude, like…” Larry felt his face warm up further, especially when sal broke into an uncontrollable laughter.“Oh my god...We’re basically trying to avoid this topic at all time…but it's like, such a big thing....”Larry was more shocked than happy about Sal being okay with what he said. He had never seen the blue haired one laugh so hard before, it kind of worried him in a way. Once the laughter came to a halt, Sal finally perked his head up.“To be honest I should just show it to you. You are a really, really nice person, Larry Face, and I know that as a fact. Like I see you as the best friend I’ve ever had in my life. I guess I might as well use the fact that you’re moving in as a chance for me to move the fuck on...” Sal found himself oddly relaxed when he proceeded to take his mask off. His heart was still beating fast though, the second person who had ever seen his real face was Larry. The first was his dad.“We all have to move on, you did your best, the real Sally Face.” Larry smiled, didn’t flinch or anything when Sal reveal his face to him for the second time, willingly.Yet, the brunet felt his chest tightened for some mysterious reason. Yes he still sees this beautiful boy in front of him, but even more beautiful than the last time he saw him.Tears fell down from the corner of Sal’s good eye. He smiled back warmly at Larry.“Thank you.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

It didn't take long for Larry to get used to seeing Sal's actual face. In fact, he loved every second of it. The way his friend smile, the way he jokingly judge Larry with an half-lidded eye when Larry made a bad pun, and the way he bite his lower lip when anxious or deep in thought. There were so much more about Sally Face than he’d imagine; so much more interesting little details to discover. And their friendship just grew even stronger.Later in the night, they continued to hang out like how they used to be, nothing has changed. The only difference was that Sal didn't have his mask on. A disadvantage would be how Sal have to remember to put on his prosthetic mask every time he wanted to go anywhere in the house besides Larry's room and his own.After a long time of talking about silly stuff, they descended the stairs to find Gizmo at the basement, who was sitting lazily on the couch, as always.The cat never really went upstairs, Sal didn't know what's up with him and interacting with humans and staying in their space. It seemed like the only person he trust is Sal, yet even so he still rarely climb up the stairs to gain love and attention from the boy, unlike most other cats.While Sal filled some clean water for Gizmo, Larry attempted to get close to the cat, which ended up getting a threatening glare that prevented the boy from getting anywhere near him.“Damn, after all those years of giving Gizmo treats whenever I go over to your place, he still treats me like a stranger, I'm heartbroken.” Larry joked, he placed his hand on his chest in a dramatic way.“He thinks he’s a human, so don’t be too upset about it.” Sal grinned as he approached toward Gizmo to pick him up for a bit, he relaxed into the shorter boy’s arms and purred.Larry pretended to be jealous, he turned his head away from their direction. Sal laughed at him lightheartedly.Once the boys were upstairs, they felt drowsy so they said good night to each other before heading into their own room. As much as Sal and Larry had fun sleeping over at each other's place back in the days. Now the situation was a whole lot different, sleeping in the same room when both of them were already living together seemed too intentional and weird.However, something came across Larry’s mind as soon as his head hit the pillow. He blamed himself for not thinking of it earlier. He got out of his room and was about to knock on Sal’s door until it opened itself.“Oh, hey, Larry, what’s wrong?” Sal had his mask on, but Larry could easily make out the details of his wide opened eyes beneath the dark holes. The brunet felt bad for scaring him.“Damn sorry dude, I swear I was about to knock...so uh, I’m just wondering, do you have your glass eye on right now?” Uh-oh, that came out weird. Larry scratched his grown out facial hair awkwardly, hoping to end this conversation soon.He didn’t know if his friend remained quiet for a while on purpose merely to confuse him or if he was just shocked to hear the dumb question. Larry was too embarrassed to focus on the situation at the moment, so instead he focused on how Sal’s blue hair shimmered under the moonlight, creating a even cooler hue to it; something akin to a bluish shade of gray, and the taller boy found it mesmerizing.“Well...as you can see,” The blue haired boy held up one of his hands a little higher, it held onto a glass of water, and Larry immediately understood what that was. Sal used to bring a glass to his bed at sleepovers, and he has also explained to the taller one about putting his glass eye in it. Sal wasn’t afraid to let Larry know about it, he was trustworthy, for the other one at least. “I’m heading over to the bathroom to get this thing out.”“Does it get uncomfortable wearing it all day?”“Sometimes, but you get used to it. The thing about taking them out is simply to clean them, they get dirty easily, and also sometimes they fall off when you sleep. It’s a pain in the ass to retrieve it under your bed in the next morning.”“Hm, that was oddly specific.” Larry squinted at the blue haired boy, he tried not to escape a smile from his lips.“Heh.”Sal walked toward the bathroom, he turned around at one point when he saw his friend stood still at the same spot, “What?”, he tilted his head.“Um...shit, I-I was just thinking…” The brunet was losing his words once again. Sal was beginning to have a suspicion, of what? He didn’t know yet, but he only found it odd to see his best friend stutter over words so many times today, the guy normally wouldn’t. Something must be off .He went on, face tinted with crimson. “Since you showed me your face already, what about your face...without the eye on?”Much to Larry’s surprise, his friend giggled to his words, in a breathless fashion that sounded like he was about to suffocate, which only lead to further rising the temperature on the brunet’s face.“No? Yes? I’m alright with the request, it’s up to you really, are you sure you’re ready to see the gruesome, horrendous reality behind this eye?” Sal lowered his voice for theatrical effect.“Bring it on, dude, ain’t afraid of nothing.” He wasn’t lying. Usually the most horrid things Larry were afraid of all existed within fictional stories. Here in reality, he was sure for a fact that no matter what Sal look like, he would still support and love him as a friend.Sal motioned Larry to follow him into the bathroom. The brunet’s heart was palpitating, he had no clue as of why it was doing so. It wasn’t like Sal was going to murder him in the bathroom.The shorter boy set the glass down by the sink, he removed his prosthetic before proceeding to take his artificial eye out. Before he did so, he asked Larry to cover his eyes first. The taller one listened to him, but couldn’t help and wonder why, were there any complicated procedure to follow before removing the eye? Or was Sal just nervous?“Okay, you can look now…” Sal’s voice became smaller. The entire situation was no different to a middle schooler waiting for their first kiss from a crush. Awkwardness, anxiety, anticipation, and excitement filled the air between them. And it was mainly Sal’s fault. Things could have turn out much easier.Larry peeked through his fingers before putting his hands down. First thing he noticed was how the worried boy in front of him played his long hair with his index finger. His teeth bit into the lower lip so hard that turned the skin pale. Larry moved his gaze toward where the glass eye normally sit in, he believed that by normal standards, most people would think of it as repulsive, yet he somehow found it fascinating. Rather fascinating, actually.“Dude, this is so metal.” The taller boy blurted out his thought without hesitation.Sal froze in place for a moment before bursting into laughter, his lower lip now has an alluring tinge of red from all the hard biting.“For real? Do I actually look metal? That’s the best compliment I’ve ever heard!” The blue haired wiped his tears away from the corners of his eyes, he waited until he calmed down a bit, then pointed his finger up. “Watch this.”He turned off the light switch, everything went pitch black for a second. Within a minute, both of their eyes have adjusted to the darkness. The moonlight shining through the blinds irradiated Sal’s facial features, creating a high contrast picture of his face in the dark.“How about now? Even more metal?”“Hell yeah, super metal. I can already see Sanity’s Fall using your photo as their album cover!”Both boys bursted into hysterical laughter until someone knocked loudly and rapidly on the door. “I can hear you two, I’m hoping you guys are not doing drugs in there or something. Keep it down and go to sleep already.” It was Todd, he sounded exhausted. He didn’t leave until Sal replied with a ‘Sorry’.The two boys glanced at each other, both failed to keep their face straight, “Oh yeah, we’re definitely doing drugs in here.” Larry raised his eyebrows dramatically and the other laughed along.The night was long and eventful, and they were happy in the end. The boys were out like a light the moment they returned to their bed.Sal thought everything was going fine, such as how he had become more open toward Larry, which was expressed through how he talked and laughed and joked when he was with the boy. It wasn’t until the dream that night aroused a strange feeling inside Sal, and then everything was not ever the same afterwards.It was fortunate that Sal did not have to experience a nightmare that night. But instead, it was something unusual. He has never seen any of his friends or family in a normal, healthy state in his dreams. Yet in this particular dream, he saw Larry, all fine and smiling and waving at Sal.
The taller boy was sitting inside his treehouse, whistling softly as he doodled in a sketchbook. Rays of sunshine brightened the small place, tinting everything in shades of yellow and orange. Sal was curious about what the brunet was drawing, he looked over his friend’s shoulder to see a sketch of him, without his prosthetic on.

Although the pencil sketch was quite messy, but in a way that Sal liked it. The depiction of his face was accurate, even some of the small details were drawn out under the light strokes of the HB pencil. Sal was very impressed, like he always does whenever he sees art made by his friend, but even more so this time.

Suddenly, Larry placed the pencil down to move up and touch one side of Sal’s cheeks. The shorter boy stared at his friend in surprise, wanting to question why. However, words could not come out of his mouth, he tried again and again but they all ended up sounding like he choked on air.

Larry leaned in closer until their foreheads meet, they were so close to each other that everything appeared out of focus. All Sal noticed was how vibrant this color of cherry was on his best friend's cheeks. Somehow they were inching closer and closer toward each other, confusion and Dizziness filled Sal's head. He tried to scream and the only noise he managed to make out was a moan. An oddly seductive one.
The blue haired boy jolted awake with cold sweat soaking his shirt. Bright sunlight caused him to squint and curse under his breath.Sal set his glass eye in place and put on his mask, then quickly threw on a clean shirt. He took a glance at the clock on the wall, it was nine.The boy tried his best to not think about the dream. He hummed a melody of a song he loved, and headed out of his room with the sole intention to take a shower while the dirty shirt hung over his shoulder. Sleepy eyes caused his vision to blur at times but he ignored it.When he swung open the bathroom door, the boy almost had an heart attack. Never in his eighteen years of life had he felt so mad at someone not locking the door when utilizing the bathroom.There he was, his best friend standing in front of the mirror as he was about to put on a band logo t-shirt. Nonetheless, it was too late, Sal saw the person he wanted to avoid the most at the moment, being half naked.“Morning, Sally Face.” Larry cheerfully greeted as he threw on the shirt. He seemed not bothered by Sal walking in, and that was totally normal due to how they used to change in front of each other at times, there was nothing wrong about the whole situation.Sal was extremely glad that his sleepy eyes were blurring part of his vision. All he saw was the brunet’s lithe body, with bony structures just like himself, but much more muscular. Sal had also noticed the moles scattering sparsely across Larry's upper body, the shorter boy was surprised how he didn't notice that before...Alright, that was actually a more than enough amount of details.“Morning, remember to lock the door next time please.” There was a hint of sass in Sal's voice, and his friend could sense it. “Now excuse me, I'm gonna go take a shower.”“Okay...?” Larry scratched his head as he left the bathroom, perplexed at his friend's sudden change in tone.Sal furrowed his brows as he set down his mask, unsure of why he was having an attitude toward Larry. And then he looked in the mirror, noticing how deeply his face was flushed.“Fuck.”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

There had never been any awkward silence between Sal and Larry. For the first time ever, there was only discomfort in the air.Larry assumed Sal got up on the wrong side of bed, and he would return back to normal after his shower. The brunet sat down at the dining table with a plate of breakfast that Todd has prepared for them, he ate as he thought about what to say to the other boy once he come out.Sal walked out of the bathroom with a towel on his shoulder, his hair was still damp. Larry stared at him until he sat down at the table, but one chair away from his confused friend. The blue haired kept his gaze on the pancakes in front of him at all times, he didn’t talk or even move beside bringing food up to his mouth under the mask. The taller boy admitted that he could never understand completely of what the other was thinking or feeling, despite all those years of friendship.“Hey,” Larry tried to break the silence, but only made the situation more awkward by Sal not looking at him. “Wanna watch a movie later?”The other boy remained silent for a moment before he mumbled, “Why?”“Um...then what do you want to do?”“I don’t see the point of talking about what to do, just do whatever you want.” No, it wasn’t like Larry wasn’t used to Sal being nonchalant at times, but it would only be times when he was really lost in his own thoughts, or after his dad neglected discussing important things at hand with him, but it all happen rarely.“Did you have a nightmare? You can talk to me about it if you want.” Larry took some courage to ask him the question, all he got back was Sal shaking his head.The silence continued. Sal washed his plate in the sink then returned back to his room. As soon as he closed the door behind him, he leaned back onto the door and sighed loudly. He had his face on his hand. “What the hell was I doing…?”Sal did not mean to leave his friend perplexed like that. Everything was going perfectly fine last night, it was only the dream, the goddamn dream that had made him all weird inside. It wasn’t a feeling of discovering a secret crush or affection. It was more like a sign, a premonition, that something was going to happen, something was about to change, and he had no idea what it will be. It left him scared, he didn’t know what to do, especially how to act around Larry, he didn’t want to make anything unexpected to happen so he decided to put on a careless attitude. If he had a nightmare, it would be much easier despite how much pain it brought him, because he could simply go up to Larry and find comfort in the other’s company. But this time, what happened in his dream was much more difficult to deal with than any other nightmares.Sal searched through his desk drawer to find a notebook with a plain, black cover, it was a small gift from his dad from about a year ago. Sometimes he scribbles random stuff down when anxiety hit him or when he could not process a complicated thought or feeling. He decided that everything he was experiencing at the moment would be much easier to understand if he put it all down on paper.He looked down at the page filled with messy writing, a few crossed out words here and there. The blue haired boy took a deep breath before attempting to analyze and solve the puzzle. Thanks to the help of the notebook, he was now much calmer than before.First of all, having such a dream was weird because Sal did not have any feelings toward his best friend, and although it could not be completely proved, but he also believed that the other didn’t as well. Secondly, Sal has never had any dreams like this before, with such ambience that could be considered as soft, warm, and bubbly. He doesn’t even daydream about it. This had to be the sole reason as to why he was feeling dazed after he woke up.After another ten minutes of organizing his thoughts, he came to the conclusion that the dream happened because his brain wasn’t familiar with being so open to others on the previous night, thus it confused itself to thinking that the boy was falling in love, specifically with the person he opened up to.Now that Sal was feeling much better, he collapsed face down onto the bed, feeling mentally drained. He whined when somebody knocked at the door. “Come in.” He shouted, hearing his own voice broke only made him more upset.“Larry told me you suddenly hate him, what happened?” To Sal’s surprise, it was Todd. The shorter boy recognized him by voice.The blue haired boy rolled his good eye, he flipped over in order to face the ceiling. “He asked you to come talk to me? Wow, I’m not even surprised.”“No,” The redhead cleared his voice and sat down by the side of Sal’s bed. “I came here because I want to. So he told me about how you were all happy and fun hanging out with him last night, then suddenly this morning you have been very different...Sal, he sounded so sad.”“Oh...it’s nothing, just a weird dream.“ Sal would be lying if he said he didn’t feel bad when he heard that Larry was sad.“If it’s about any of the demon and ghosts stuff, you should talk to me about it.” Todd pushed his glasses upwards. His serious tone of voice made Sal wanted to crawl under the quilt and never come out.“No it’s really nothing important,” But he knew well of the fact that Todd always have good and rational intentions, so he pretended to be completely fine and sat back up to the edge of the bed. “Thanks for worrying.”However, the disappointed stare Todd gave him was a more than enough sign that he would not be getting away with this. The redhead sighed and it almost startled Sal, the boy rarely sighs unless he’s getting frustrated or really concerned about something.“Okay, okay, I lied." Sal gave up, he would never want to disappoint Todd.“About what?” Todd stared at the other boy with piercing eyes.Sal nearly jumped at the quick response. He averted his gaze, and mumbled. “The dream…”“What dream?” Todd crossed his arms, the action did not make the situation any less uneasy for the other person.“Uh…” He guessed it might be okay to talk to Todd about it, since he was not like any other friends who would make a big fuss over things that didn’t matter. “Have you ever had dreams about...being together with someone and maybe it's even related to love or relationships?”“So like a wet dream?” Todd still sounded serious, he looked directly into Sal’s eyes.“Todd!” The blue haired boy cried. Humiliated, he brushed the messy strands of hair away from his prosthetic mask in haste. “Just...pure love? I guess? Something along the line.”“Oh, okay,” Todd turned his eyes away and stared into space, he was deep in thought for a moment before continuing. “At times. But only back when I was in elementary school.”That only made Sal more embarrassed. “Did you...have a crush at that time?”“Yeah, that was mainly the reason why.” Todd smiled lightly at Sal, who was practically frowning at the answer. The redhead then realized something, his eyes widely opened. “Don’t tell me your dream was abou-”“No, no it’s not.”“I haven’t even said the name! But fine, if you don’t want to talk about it, I won’t force you to. I’m going to go back to my working desk and-” The redhead stood up from his spot, he was about to leave until Sal grasped firmly onto his wrist. “Ow.”“Okay, sit down and listen.” Todd rolled his eyes and did as Sal told. “Don’t say anything until I told you to. So I had a dream about Larry yeah and we’re hanging out right then I see that he was drawing a picture of me and the weather was also very nice for some reason and then he touched my face and then he wanted to kiss me or something oh god I don’t really know but um I don’t have a crush on him so like...yeah.“ Sal’s heart was beating rapidly. He spoke so fast that he had to catch his breath.Sal was confused when Todd didn’t response, the redhead just stared at him with a straight face. “Um, Todd?”“You told me not to say anything until you say so.” Oh, right, now the boy’s making a fool of himself.“Uh, you...can talk now?” The blue haired boy felt his face growing warm, he felt like an idiot.The redhead cleared his throat, he remained calm as he spoke. “So I assume you are starting to have feelings for your best friend, huh?”“No no no I just said I don’t have a crush on him.” Sal played with his hair anxiously, his lower lip was once again sunk in by his teeth.“Ah...oh well, all I can say is, you don’t know yet, do you?” Todd grinned, but not in an obnoxious fashion. “When I first met Neil, I honestly thought I was going to hate him. But hey, after a few times of hanging out, I realized that we share a lot of interests. Even our personality was alike.”“I guess you’re right,” Sal looked down at the floor. “Is Larry’s personality like mine though?” Surprisingly, he has never thought about it before.“Not when I first met you two, I thought you two are the complete opposite. But after we all got to know each other better, you two do share a lot of common in traits.”“Oh...are you saying that there’s a possibility that we will be together? But I always thought we’re both straight.”“Maybe. Just maybe. I can’t tell you for sure.” Todd shrugged. “But just like I said earlier, you'll never know. I always thought I was one hundred percent straight before I met Neil.”“Damn.” Sal lost his words, thousands of ‘what ifs’ crossed his mind. He messed with his hair nervously.“Don’t overthink it. I think what you should focus on right now is to apologize to Larry.” Todd gave a pat to Sal’s back. He stood up from the bed and turned around to give a thumbs up at his friend. “If you struggle with anything, come talk to me, I’ll be upstairs working.”There were definitely things more important to handle at the moment, Sal thought to himself. He slowly walked toward the door and opened it. The boy took a glance at the kitchen, there were no one in there. He then stood in front of Larry’s room for a minute, hesitating on whether to knock or not.“Sal?” A low voice was heard behind his back, he turned around to see Larry, who was smelling strongly like tobacco.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

They stood there, staring at each other. Both of their brains have somehow shut down for at least a minute.“Oh uh, hi? No...” Sal coughed a little, he ran a hand through his hair nervously, some strands of hair got caught in the straps of his prosthetic mask. “Ow! Shit.”“What are you doing?” Larry made a wry smile.The blue haired boy tried to fix his hair that were stuck under the straps and only made it messier. “Ugh...can we talk in your room?”“Sure.” The shorter one couldn't tell his friend's emotion from his voice, it made him more worried about what might happen despite that he knew how his friend always forgive him for anything.Sal took in a deep breath before unstrapping his prosthetic. He lightly brushed his hair back to its original condition with his hand, then turned to face Larry who walked in later. “Look, I-I'm sorry about this morning.”“Sorry for what?” The tone wasn't even being passive aggressive, which made Sal more guilty than ever.“I was having an attitude...I-I honestly thought I was doing better, like last night I was much more opened up to you and...and we were so happy about how we're technically roommates now. So...I'm just so sorry.” Sal's face was bright red. He almost teared up but clenching his fists helped to calm down a little.“Dude,” Larry walked in closer, he placed one hand onto Sal's shoulder. The shorter boy got chills when he was touched. “It's not that big of a deal. But to tell the truth I was actually worried. I thought the demon was back in your dream, or just something personal that I can't know yet.”Sal opened his mouth, then closed it again. He thought hard about what to say. He didn't want to take the risk to spill out the truth about his dream. The boy had a feeling that doing so might create this strange discomfort in between them, and trying to explain that he have no feelings toward the other person might only make it worse.“Sorry to make you worry, Larry, really…” He paused for a second and realized how warm his face has become. “Yeah it was a dream…I woke up feeling grumpy because of whatever happened in that dream. And I couldn't even remember any of it, which only made me more frustrated.”Maybe telling a half lie wouldn't be as bad, at least to Sal it wouldn't.“Damn...I totally understand that feeling when you can't remember a dream. Don't worry dude, at least you're back to normal now.” The brunet beamed with a relieved sigh.“Heh, yeah.”Maybe. Just maybe . One day, Sal would tell his best friend about the actual dream. But that day would be the day when they're happily together, and they have to be sitting in the tree house, hanging out together. Larry would draw him a picture, and Sal would play with his hair, and they would say ‘I love you’ to each other like a married couple. Oh god . Sal didn't know why his mind even came across that, his heartbeat increased in speed and he averted his gaze from Larry's.The taller boy was looking concerned once again, “Are you having a fever? Your face is really red, and you look like you're gonna faint.”“No, I'm okay.” It must've been his brain misunderstanding friendship with love again. It has to be.“Sit here, I'll get you a glass of water.”Larry was always so kind and considerate, he probably got that from Lisa. Sal sat down on the bean bag, wondering why he couldn't be more like his friend.As the taller friend hurried to the kitchen, he couldn't help but think about that if what Sal said was the case, then he probably would've told him everything by the morning. However, he didn't want to have doubts against Sal, he never consider his friend as much of a liar, so he decided to believe in him.Once Larry had returned, Sal was scrolling through his phone, he perked up to grin at Larry.Ah, a beauty, Larry thought once again.“By the way, you went out to smoke again didn't you?” Sal reached out to grab the glass of water from his friend.The brunet blushed at the question, he felt exposed. “How did you know? Weren't you in your room the whole time?”“The smell.” Sal took a sip from the water before he closed his phone and slipped it into his pocket.The taller boy grabbed onto the collar of his own shirt and took a sniff. “Damn, you're right.”“If you get an addiction I won't talk to you anymore.” Sal half-joked, he leaned back further into the bean bag.“I won't ever I swear.” Larry pouted as he hastily took off his shirt and threw it to the corner of his room, where there were already a few socks laying around.Sal took his phone out again, pretending to be busy texting with not even one app opened. His face were tinted crimson once again, much to his reluctant.Larry plopped himself down onto the bean bag next to Sal, he also began scrolling through his phone.“Are you not gonna put on any clothes? We're trying to save electricity bill so it's still kind of chilly in here.” Sal continued to glue his eyes on the small rectangular screen.“Really? I'm actually feeling kind of hot.”“You're weird.”They both laughed lightheartedly. After minutes of looking at zero new inbox messages, Sal decided to go to the bathroom to splash some water onto his face, despite how cold it already was. “I'm using the toilet, will be right back.” He lied, for the second time that day.After a few refreshing splashes of freezing cold water, he quickly grabbed something off the rack on the side of the sink with closed eyes, and dried his face with it.That was where they kept their towels and other toiletries. The specific spot that Sal just reached his hand to was where he kept his towel.Something felt off after a few rubs to his face. The texture, the size, and the smell, oh the smell was so familiar. Everything was different from his own towel. Yet it was too late, his face was dried completely as he opened his eyes and stared down at the thing he was holding in horror.Sal have been to Larry's old place countless of times, he knew the tendency of how the brunet tosses his dirty shirt everywhere he goes.Nonetheless, the blue haired boy was being careless this time. The paint tainted t-shirt he was holding onto was Larry's without a doubt. Sal's face was flushed, and this time, no matter how much he torment himself with icy cold water, the pink blush wouldn't go away.What left him frozen in place was the smell that lingered in his nose. It wasn't like bad or gross or anything, at least to him it wasn't. It was those kinds of smell that reminds you of a certain person, place, or memory.All Sal could get out of that smell was a little bit of tobacco, some paint, this particular soap that his best friend used at his old place, and just sweat in general. It all mixed together and created something new, something unique that one would recognize it was Larry's right away. It was like the t-shirt was soaked in his essence.The blue haired boy realized then of how he was smelling this all the time whenever he was around his best friend, and the shirt was merely ten times stronger.Something inside Sal stirred, he had to come up with ways to calm down and being on his own wouldn't solve the issue. He rushed out of the bathroom and thought about focusing on doing other things with Larry so the smell, now inside his head, would eventually fade away.Everything was fine, for a mere one minute. Sal never thought about how flexible he could be until he found himself sitting in a weird position that may likely sprain one of his ankles.“Can you pass me a blanket?” The shorter boy pointed toward the blanket hanging at the edge of the bed as he felt the blood inside him all streamed southward.“Seriously I think you might have a cold.” Larry stared at him suspiciously, he threw the blanket over to his friend who was spacing out.This was not the first time Sal's body had decided to act physiologically on the worst timing. Last time it was back when he was in high school, he was doodling on his notebook then fell asleep during a lesson, when he woke up his lower body were nowhere near calm. Luckily he was sitting at the last row of the classroom, no one witnessed it.Sal would say that he's pretty unusual about those things. He has never really been interested in the topic of sex, and have only came across his mind for barely a few times.Now he had become truly concerned as of what might be the case to cause his body to react this way. It could be because of the smell on that shirt, but he decided to not go toward that direction just yet.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sal didn't know how to deal with his body's reaction, and he decided to leave it until it goes away, which he later realized that it was a useless action.It was like one of those situations when you're starving and once you consumed food you only end up wanting more.He wouldn't even dare to move an inch, as any extra friction to his pants may cause trouble to happen.The piercing eyes coming from his friend's direction only made Sal more uncomfortable. He bit down hard on his lip, nearly wanting to throw up.On the other hand, Larry had a strong desire to talk to his friend. He didn't know why that he couldn't think of anything to say, something inside him churned whenever he looked at Sal, and it interfered with his ability to speak. But the brunet just couldn't stop glancing in his friend’s direction every few seconds. Larry assumed it had to be the fact that he could never get sick of looking at Sal's real face, he still thought it looked cool as hell. That would be it, there were no other reasons, yet.Dead silence continued on. It was Sal who managed to spoke first, he tried to sound casual and it worked magically. “I might be heading back to my own room,” He would then have to hide his erection on his way, yet it would be all worth it once he's back to his room. “What are your plans today?”“Sure, I think you should take a rest. And I have absolutely zero plans so I think I'm gonna play video games this afternoon, maybe will go bother Todd as well.”“Fair enough. If you're hungry by the way, I believe there are leftover pizza in the fridge.“ Sal did not feel any desire for food. At the moment, he only hoped for his body to recover to its original state.He wondered if Todd had made lunch for them. Though normally they would just grab random stuff from the fridge to make a sandwich or something light for lunch.“‘kay.”Sal attempted to stand up onto his feet with a blanket wrapped around his entire body. Almost tripping over due to how difficult it was to stand up straight. “By the way, you can throw your stuff around and all that. But try to keep it in your room. If Todd even sees one of your socks out there he will come for you with a kitchen knife when you fall asleep at night.”“Oh shit, I better watch out.” Larry laughed lightly. He couldn't remain serious because of just how cute Sal looked with the blanket around him. He almost blurted out ‘You're cute’, but that was a high risk that he didn't have the balls to take.Once Sal was back to his own room, he stared into the mirror, trying to convince himself that this was okay and would never happen again. Never had he been looking in the mirror for such a long time, usually he would check in the mirror merely for the purpose to fix his messy hair or make sure his prosthetic face was in place.He traced the marks on his face with his finger. The boy had gotten used to seeing his scarred face already, yet after hearing what Larry remarked about it, like ‘pretty’ and all that, it subconsciously made it more bearable for him to look at himself in the mirror without the prosthetic, despite how he totally disagreed with the opinion.The blue haired boy took a deep breath, he looked down at his hard-on, which had become more subtle though it still ached somehow. It was frustrating, he didn’t want to fuck anyone, or even be fucked, he shuddered at the unusual thought.Sal rummaged through his closet, pulling out one shirt after another, leaving a pile of mess behind.Eventually, he found what he was hoping to find at the deepest area of the closet. With hesitation, he gently pulled out the piece of garment.Sal stared at it, he haven’t seen it in a while. The first time he wore it was approximately two years ago, when he was playing truth or dare with Maple, Chug, and Ashley. Speaking of those other friends, he realized that he haven’t seen them in a while. They all moved to different towns and cities in order to attend college or university. He admitted that he do miss them quite a bit, and wondered if they’re all doing okay.
He had never been so glad that Todd and Larry were busy with assignments.

Sal remembered that he kept on losing, the open end of the bottle continuously found its way to face him. He wasn’t quite a person who were open to challenges, so he chose truth all the way until the end.

The teens attempted to ask him questions as deep and personal as possible, but they weren’t assholes, they knew where to draw the line so the questions wouldn’t be too much for Sal. In such case the sensitive topics would be something along the line of the childhood incident that had already traumatized him enough.

They continued to ask stupid questions, at least to Sal it was stupid, such as his first crush, his current one, his most embarrassing moment, his favorite person out of all the friends, which was obvious enough to everyone who he was the most comfortable with. Sal’s answers were all bland and evident, everyone else began to get bored at the game, but they didn’t blame him.

“You’re so boring!” Ashley whined, she was the one who finally blurted out what the other two friends were also thinking about.

“Sorry, my life isn’t as interesting as you all think,” The boy in pigtails paused for a moment, then decided to make the big move. “Fine, I guess I’ll choose dare this one time.”

He watched Ashley’s face lit up in excitement, and the other two grinned at each other like idiots. It was funny now that he’d said it, the turn actually didn’t got to him for another ten spins, and ending up with Ashley and Chug spilling out all their ‘cool’ and ‘exciting’ stories of theirs.

When it got to him at last, Ashley clapped her hands together as she told them her idea that she’d been holding in for at least a few hours.

“Cross dressing?” Sal couldn’t believe what he heard, he almost laughed at how his voice suddenly rose in tone. “Why? How? And just...what?”

“No questions allowed. C’mon I have some clothes you can use, I believe it’s in...” The girl reached into her backpack, where she delightfully pulled out a v neck black shirt, a burgundy colored high waist leather skirt, a fishnet stocking, and a choker with a rose pattern made of lace. “Here!”

He didn’t even have the energy to ask why she even put all that in there in the first place, it was as if she planned this whole thing way ahead of time. All of the others stared at her, astounded.

“Can he even fit into those?” Maple made a very good point, Sal really appreciated that.

The brunette smirked, “We’ll find out. I mean, he’s so skinny.” That was true, he was beyond skinny comparing to his friends, and shorter as well. In fact, he has always been kind of insecure about it.

After Sal got out from another room, everyone was speechless. He had never felt so embarrassed and wanted to run away so badly. However, to everyone’s surprise, including himself, the clothes fit unexpectedly well on him. The tight fitting shirt and the skirt all worked so well together; the fishnet and the choker embellished the entire outfit as well. Ashley was so thrilled she insisted him to keep the clothing. She also took a bunch of quick photos before Sal screamed and tried to snatch the phone from her. Maple and Chug laughed at their silliness. It was not much of a great experience, he would say, but it definitely made him realize his interest in cross dressing from that day on.

He also begged Ashley to not show Larry and Todd the photos or even tell them about it, and so she pinky-promised him.
The last few times he remembered wearing it was when he was unsure about himself, he felt like at least he can be someone else for a little while. And some other reasons that he wore it would be simply just out of interest. Besides, he always found girl’s clothing more stylish and appealing rather than boy’s, to his personal sense of aesthetic at least.Sal also thought about doing some shopping on his own, but he didn’t want to be seen as a creep. He thought about contacting Ashley and ask her about it, and instantly got rid of the idea due to that she might be busy in school, and secondly he didn’t feel as comfortable to tell her about that yet. Not even Larry would be in his consideration to talk to, he decided that this would be his own little secret; a secret passion in cross dressing.The blue haired boy stared at himself in the mirror, he always imagined that adding a pair of high heels would be perfect to the look. Even some eyeliner or lipstick would work as well, and yet he was not confident enough to go into applying makeup yet.Unfortunately, it would soon no longer stay as a secret.Sal heard a knock at the door, he panicked and his first instinct was to hide in the closet in case anyone walked in. It was too late anyhow, as he was about to reach for the closet, the door opened mercilessly.“Sal?” It was Larry. The two froze in place when his eyes met Sal’s, he stared for a while, unable to form a sentence. “W-Wha...wait...hm?”The shorter boy felt as if his soul has been taken away from him, he couldn’t even react to the situation. He felt lightheaded as he plopped down onto the floor in a hopeless fashion.“W-Are you okay?!” Larry rushed toward him, but Sal wouldn’t move, he just spaced out into the air with blank eyes.The brunet knew he should be worried about Sal, yet he couldn't help yet notice how utterly attractive his friend looked. Unmistakably, Larry could hear his heartbeat sped up as he gaze at his gorgeous friend.Sal seemed to be coming back more to life, he glanced at Larry, who was kneeling beside him with a worried expression on his flushed face.The next thing Larry knew was that Sal leaned against him, he was quivering in the taller one’s arms. “No no no no no…”“It’s okay, I won’t tell anyone.” Somehow, Larry’s deep yet gentle voice was oddly soothing to Sal’s ears.“But no...just no...you’ve seen so much, everything...happened so quick these two days, I’m scared...I don’t know…..” The face, the eye, now the cross dressing, it was overwhelming for the shorter boy to take in. He hasn't even become able to fully embrace the weird dream yet. What the heck was all this about with moving in? How come everything was so well hidden back when they still lived in Addison apartment? Was it because they were just too excited to move in with each other? He was so confused about everything that was going on and the panic caused his ear to buzz loudly.“I’m so sorry...I didn’t mean to, I just wanted to see how you’re doing, you seem like you might be sick and you haven’t had lunch yet.” The taller one slowly wrapped his arms around Sal, hoping to give his best friend some comfort.Sal slowed down his breathing, he sat up a little and calmly stared into Larry’s eyes, feeling a strong sense of comfort from the other. It was strange, he always finds comfort in him, but not as strong than what he was experiencing at the moment.“Wow…”“Wow?”“You care about me so much that I calmed down.” He let out a chuckle at how silly it sounded afterwards.Shit. Shit. Now Larry was the one who panicked. He felt his heart fluttered seeing the soft smile on Sal’s face, and again, just the outfit on its own, the whole thing suited the brunet’s taste perfectly. But the outfit on Sal now? It was hot, he had to admit. He couldn’t help but pulled his friend closer in for a hug.“Larry? Larry, I can’t breathe.” He laughed a little as he tap Larry on the back in rapid motions.“I’m sorry, it’s just…” He mumbled.“What’s that?”“You look so damn good…” He paused for a moment before grasping on Sal’s shoulders and tilted back away from him, the blood below his cheeks were boiling.They both stood up from their spot in sync, both of their eyes were wide opened and their lips moved in a way as if words were nearly about to come out but couldn’t."Thanks I guess?” Sal grinned in an unnatural way, his hair was already messed up by how much he had ran his hand through it.“Ahhh...ha ha…” Larry beamed back for a short while before dashing out of Sal’s room. Leaving his friend perplexed.“What the…”Sal observed his crimson tinted face in the mirror, god knows how many times his face have become this red today, the thought made him wanted to kick a wall angrily.He was about to change before Larry hurried into his room again, “...the hell?”“Sorry to make things weird, I was only telling the truth...and…” Sal wondered if Larry was practicing saying this in the bathroom or something, he almost bursted into laughter but held it back in. “Do you want to be my model? For like, my painting?!”That came out a little bit too loud and agitated. Larry placed his hands onto his face, it was kind of cute. Sal chuckled lightly as he shrugged, “Sure, why not?”The taller friend seemed to be relieved hearing his response. Yet really, Sal have no excuse to say no to that. He liked dressing like this, and he loved his friend's art skills. There was nothing bad about the idea of being Larry's life model.It was only day two. And their hearts have only become closer to each other.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The next two weeks flew by with some sort of tension between the two. Todd was keen enough to sense the suspense in the air, and Neil of course noticed too, but he couldn't care less due to how heavy his workload was.Like usual, they would greet to each other, and hung out like best bros. Yet something was off, if they accidentally stared at each other for too long or smile a bit too much, even without any intentions, they would instantly blush and felt the need to leave their spot for whatever excuses like using the bathroom or checking on Gizmo.What bothered Sal the most was the agreement he made to model for his best friend’s painting, he even agreed later on when Larry asked if he was okay to paint him without the mask on. He didn’t know when Larry’s going to start since the brunet never spoke of it afterward, and he didn’t know if he was even mentally prepared to let the brunet stare at him for hours straight, while cross dressing.At one point the blue haired boy did mentioned about it, and Larry explained that he wanted to regain some of the drawing skills that he have lost during all those weeks busy with moving before getting onto the actual painting.Sal wasn't sure if his friend was just nervous or something, he didn't think his amazing art skills could be gone so easily.The truth was, Larry was worried. He wanted to paint Sal as close to perfection as possible, especially without the prosthetic on. Now it was for real, and it was nothing like the rough sketches he made in the past of what Sally Face might’ve look like under the mask. It was a real thing this time, he was going to paint his best friend, who he thought was extremely good looking, with a cute outfit on.As a matter of fact, Larry was the one who procrastinate the most out of all his friends. It was rather normal that he would spend a few days, or weeks even, without starting on a project.“Okay, so, I’m gonna actually do it.” The brunet was chewing on his last bit of sandwich before turning to look at Sal in the eye.“Do what?”“The painting.” Finally, he finally said it. Sal inhaled deeply before he got up from the couch.“Okay, so do I change now? Or?”“Yeah, go whenever you’re ready, it’s gonna take me about five minutes to set up all the stuff.” Larry gave a thumbs up, then made his way toward his room while whistling a random melody.The shorter boy headed back into his own room shortly after, he gazed into the mirror after he quickly changed. His mind was running through a thousand thoughts and his heart was beating fast, he had no idea why he was so nervous and he hated it.After meeting with Larry in the room full of scattered stuff, the blue haired one suggested to play some music so they wouldn’t be so bored, although the main purpose was actually to calm himself down.“How should I pose?”“Oh, don’t worry about it. Just sit down normally.” The other nodded and sat down on the chair provided in the middle of the room.On the other hand, the brunet was also really tense for some unknown reason. It was the second time seeing Sal dressed like this, but Larry still found him strikingly beautiful, especially after he began to unstrap his mask. He could never get sick of looking at that face.Larry sat in front of the easel, he tied his hair up into a messy bun before squeezing some fresh acrylic paint onto the palette. Sal admitted that he missed seeing his friend having his hair up, the style suited him in a way that was kind of, cute.In order to paint with more accuracy, he prepared a total of eight different sizes of brushes, there was one that was so tiny that Sal couldn’t tell whether it was a brush or a pen from his distance.The brunet first dipped one of his larger paint brushes into the water, where there was another cup located beside it, which was filled with coffee instead.“Don’t accidently drink the paint water, I will have to call the ambulance if you get heavy metal poisoning.” Sal reminded his friend of the danger, he could already imagine his friend grabbing the wrong cup and chug the whole thing down.“Heavy metal poisoning sounds just like my thing,” Larry laughed at his own joke. “We should form a band called Heavy Metal Poisoning. Heh, but don’t worry, I have done it once, it was bad and it won’t happen again.”Before Sal could respond, the door suddenly creaked open leaving only a gap. Both of them were frozen in place, fearing whoever was trying to come into the room. It couldn’t possibly be anyone, since Todd and Neil was out working.The boys sighed with relief when they found out it was only Gizmo. Yet also wondered why he was here, he hated coming upstairs.“He probably missed me too much, huh.” Sal smiled warmly as he let Gizmo hopped onto his lap and settled himself comfortably.“Hah, this is a nice picture. I should add him into the painting as well.”“Awesome.” The boy gently patted the cat, who let out a satisfying purr as he closed his eyes and fell asleep.Starting with the background with loose brush strokes, the brunet chose a warm tone to the overall picture. He began working on the underpainting, identifying the light source coming from the window, which was located next to Sal. It was a overcast day, so the contrast of the lighting was more subtle.Over the past couple of days, Larry had tried to do some media studies of Sal’s hair. He could never seem to mix the colors to match his hair perfectly, the specific shade of blue was so mysterious and bewitching that it almost drove Larry mad at times when he just couldn’t get the right hue.The closest shade of blue he could get was by mixing cobalt blue with some grey, which would be the hue for the shading. While mixing the same blue with some white would be the midtone. As for the highlight, add some phthalo blue to the white, then mix just a bit of contrast color to reduce the saturation so it would appear more natural.“So since when did you get into cross dressing?”The question came out of nowhere. Larry sounded so casual when he asked. Sal blinked multiple times, ignoring the temperature rising on his face as he pondered about what to say.“Um...Ash brought me some clothes this one time, it was years ago or something uh don't really recall the details. And I don't know honestly, I just think it's pretty cool?”“Nice. I think it's cool too. I don't mind this type of thing so you can do it whenever you want.” It was merely an excuse so that the taller boy could satisfy his inner desire to see his best friend dressing in the fashion of his taste.“Really? That's good to hear,” A nervous grin become to form at the corner of Sal's lips. “Would you say no if I ask you to come with me to go shopping for some outfits?”“Heck yeah, why would I say no!” Larry was already screaming ‘yes’ inside his mind as soon as he heard the other's request. The idea sounded like a dream, too wonderful to be true.While ninety percent of the painting was done, Larry was stuck fixing the hair for nearly an hour. Not just the color, the hair style itself was rather difficult to get it right. He missed doodling the pigtails with ease.Sal always trim his own hair with crappy scissors he got at a dollar store. He said his dad used to do that when he was little, and thus gave him some kind of comfort. He also liked his hair turning out to have uneven lengths, and intentionally having his hair messed up a little at all time. As opposed to how Larry would always put effort into keeping his hair straight. Such as combing his hair regularly and use conditioner every time he showered.Two and a half hours were spent in total, and they took three short breaks during the time. In case Gizmo ran off during break time, Larry had completed his part first. At times, Sal would ask if he could see the progress, yet the other refused to show it to him, telling him that it would be a surprise.The blue haired boy stretched and yawned as he stood up from the chair, feeling his spine cracked as he did so. The inside of his cheeks ached from biting for hours, mostly due to nervousness, he was afraid of having another boner or simply faint due to anxiety.Larry beamed shyly as he took the canvas out from the easel. Slowly flipping it around to reveal the finished work to his best friend.Sal was absolutely stunned, and convinced that his best friend have improved a lot in his art skills. He loved every single thing about the painting. How his friend captured the details of his face vividly, and how the use of colors and brush strokes were so bold yet pleasing to look at. Sal was completely drawn to the artwork, he didn’t even notice that he murmured his first thought out loud, “I want to hang this on my wall.”“Sure, go ahead, this is supposed to be a gift for you anyway.” Larry grinned widely as he motioned the canvas to the shorter boy.“Damn, thanks.” Sal hurriedly put on his mask before he carefully took the canvas, and only then realized that it was nearly the size of half of his body.They walked over to the other room, discussing about several good places to hang the artwork.“What if Todd sees it?” The blue haired gasped.“Just don't let him in.” The other joked.“True,” Sal examined his wall full of posters, thinking of peeling off some old ones in order to make room. “But you painted me so beautifully it doesn't look like me, he would never have guessed.”“But you are pretty.” Larry blurted out, both of their face flushed, the tension forming in the air again.“Stop joking.” The shorter boy rolled his good eye.They both laughed it off and left the room, until they stopped half way and glanced at each other. “Something smells good.”There was a sweet scent lingering in the air. They followed where the smell was coming from, only to found Todd standing in the kitchen. Evidently, he arrived home earlier than Neil.“Fuck.” The shorter boy cursed under his breath, realizing how careless he was. How could he forgot to change before stepping out of his room. Perhaps he was becoming way too comfortable around Larry even with the girly clothes on.Todd only raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything as he continued to watch the oven, which only made Sal more uncomfortable.“Hey Todd, what are you making?” Larry glanced at the oven.“Some chocolate cookies. It's for tomorrow.” The red head pushed his glasses up with his fingers, smiling while looking back and forth between the two, probably thinking about what they could possibly be doing earlier in the same room with one of them cross dressing.“Huh? Is it Neil's birthday tomorrow?” Sal tugged at the skirt. He felt uncomfortable by the suspicious stare coming from the red head. “Uh...about this, I will explain it later.”“You better,” Todd turned to check the oven once again. “Good try, but it's not his birthday.”“Oh, it's Valentine's Day!” Larry pointed his index finger out with a bright expression on his face.“Wait, what's Val-” Sal felt like an idiot. He almost forgot about the big holiday with all the chocolate. “Oh, right.”“Don't tell me you almost forgot what Valentine's Day is.”“I did. It's only for couples so I don't feel the need to remember.” That came out a little bitter, as much as he didn’t mean to.“Maybe you’ll find it important one day, maybe even soon.” The red head wiped his hands clean of chocolate with a towel, he had a rather subtle smirk on his face.The other two boys stared into space, both pondering about the word ‘soon’, as if it was some sort of poetic term that could be interpreted into hundreds of meanings.Todd carefully set his apron by the counter, “If you two got anyone on your mind. I suggest to not wait, use this chance and give them something thoughtful tomorrow.” It was an obvious enough hint, at least he thought so himself. The red head grinned and made his way upstairs.“Ha ha, I don’t think there’s anyone on my mind.” Sal leaned his back against the kitchen counter. Missing the desolate look flashing by on the other boy’s face.“I might have one, but I’m not sure…” Larry rubbed his nose awkwardly.“Really?” The blue haired boy snatched a piece of unused chocolate on a plate next to him, he frowned at the bitterness of eighty-percent cocoa. “Who is it?”“I will tell you once I’m certain I have feelings toward him.” The brunet played with the strands of hair at the side of his red-tinted face.“Him? It’s a guy?” Curiosity grew inside the shorter boy, along with a sour feeling.“Ah shit, forget about it, it’s not an actual crush anyway.”“No I’m fine with it! You can tell me. Do I know him?”“Okay then, if everything goes well, I will tell you.”“What if it doesn’t?”“Ugh, I guess I will still tell you.” He rolled up his sleeves as his body temperature began to rise.There really wasn’t much choices to guess from. Larry didn’t have much friends, all his friends were also Sal’s friends. Unless it could really be Sal, however, he omitted the idea immediately when it came to mind.At night, the blue haired boy couldn’t stop tossing and turning. He felt like he was missing something, perhaps the notion about Valentine’s Day have left him full of doubts. He was fully aware of that a certain strong feeling was hidden away from himself. Every time the boy tried to connect the dots in his mind, symptoms of anxiety hit him mercilessly, preventing him from going further into investigating the truth.It was three in the morning, Sal sat up from his bed, staring into the darkness until his eyes eventually made out details of a rectangular shape. It was the painting, the canvas was placed by the wall, facing against it. He thought about getting the necessary materials some other day to hung it up.He turned on the nightlight before moving the large painting to the side of his bed. While examining the details of his best friend’s version of himself, he couldn’t help but notice how his stomach churned.Sal lied down on the bed with a sigh, wondering who Larry’s crush might be. It couldn’t possibly be him. In the past, even if someone tried to show signs of affection toward him, he would never believe them unless they have seen Sal’s real face and fully accepted it, which Sal would never except to the person he really trusted.The boy’s lack of confidence had also caused him to experience difficulty to like someone romantically, he tended to erase even a slightest idea of getting together with a particular person. Thus explained why he reacted so intensely when he dreamt of his friend weeks ago.Sal sneaked into the kitchen to grab a can of beer from the refrigerator, he hated the taste of the liquid as much as coffee, basically he hated anything that tasted bitter. At the moment, he just desperately needed something refreshing yet somewhat intoxicating to an extent.One can of beer would be enough to make him fell asleep, perfect and simple. The reason why he couldn’t drink so much was a hereditary thing from his mother. According to Henry, his mother wasn’t very good at drinking, in contrary to her alcoholic husband.Despite that Sal fell asleep around four in the morning, he woke up at nine feeling fine for some reason. Maybe his body was used to his irregular sleep patterns. Nevertheless, he still felt constantly drowsy, not severe enough to worry about though.He greeted the other three roommates in a cheerless fashion. The couple looked happy, Sal assumed that they have already received presents from each other. On the contrary, Larry also seemed to have stayed up late, the dark circles under his eyes only appeared more dull than usual.“Hey Sal, when I checked the mailbox this morning, guess what I found.” Todd took a sip of hot tea as he motioned toward the table, where Neil then slided an envelope across for it to reach Sal.“Huh, for me? Interesting.”On the plain white envelope, it addressed his full name, ‘Sal Fisher’ in a cursive font. When he tore it open to reveal a letter and a piece of chocolate candy, the first line read ‘Happy Valentine’s Day’.That was surely unexpected.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

The letter paper was in a pastel pink color, and the words were written in black ink. Sal could tell the person was trying very hard to write in a fancy looking style, they failed miserably on a few words that were crossed out with a whiteout.Whoever wrote the letter, definitely was not poetic, nor romantic in any way. The whole thing was relatively short as well, but one could tell just how hard the person was thinking of what to say.
Happy Valentine’s Day.

I have a lot of things on my mind, and I don’t know how to start this properly so I’ll just put down whatever came to my mind first.

I’ve realize that I have feelings for you. I wasn’t so sure of it until now, before I used to think this is just a normal feeling between two good friends.

The way you laugh and talk when nervous, and just every other things about you. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

Please don’t try to find out who I am. I simply wanted to write my thoughts out so I can accept the truth that I have a crush on you.
Sal instantly knew who wrote the letter. He stared at his best friend, who was sipping hot chocolate, acting all lazy and casual.“Can I see?” Todd asked, placing his mug in front of him.“Go ahead.” Sal passed the letter to him. He quickly read it under ten seconds.“Wow. You got a secret admirer, I wonder who could it be...” The red head returned the letter back to Sal before he glanced toward Larry, who averted his eyes.The shorter boy’s eyes remained still in the brunet’s direction, which successfully gained his attention, he awkwardly smiled from across the table.“Congrats Sal, someone you know?” The blue haired had never felt such urge to punch something when he heard Larry’s voice.“Yes. I’m one hundred percent certain of who the hell wrote this thing,” Sal placed the letter on the table, gaze wouldn’t leave his friend. He had his arms crossed in front of his chest. “Why don’t you take a look at it, and tell me if you got any clue?”“Okay.” Larry still appeared calm as he took the letter, perhaps just a bit nervous due to the way his fidgeted with his hands. “Hm, no idea, maybe someone you know that I don’t?”Sal rolled his left eye, a tiny spark of anger flared within him. He always give respect to people who wanted to keep their secrets, but something about the way his friend has been acting provoked him in an unexpected way.He downed a glass of orange juice before heading back to his room with the love letter in hand.‘Come over to my room.’ Sal texted without hesitation, phone shaking along with his hand. He unstrapped his prosthetic in order to steady his breathing pattern more easily.Not for long, he heard a light knock at the door. As soon as he opened the door he gripped tightly onto the other’s arm and pulled him in. The rough action caused the taller boy to momentarily trip on Sal’s foot but quickly readjusted his position so he didn’t fall.Before Larry could question his odd behavior, Sal cornered him to the side. Despite their height differences, the aura coming off the shorter boy was still intimidating enough to make the brunet sweat. He had never seen his best friend so upset, specifically toward him.“Hey, do you assume I have a lot of friends or something?” Sal blurted, his eyes appeared deeper in the shade of blue. “The only person I could think of is you. I know it’s you who wrote the letter.”“What’re you talking about?” Larry blinked, sounding concerned."Why don’t you just tell me? Don’t hide away from it, it makes everything weird!” His voice became more frustrated, trembling as he speak.“Tell you what? I don’t understand this.” The other deadpanned, his eyebrows furrowed.“Ha, I’ve never seen such a stupid love confession. It’s so obvious it’s you, especially lately, you’ve been acting weird around me, like how you talk and shit. I’m getting tired of all this.” He slammed his fist against the wall, the sudden action made Larry stare at him with wide eyes.This was really unlike the usual Sal Fisher, from the way he talked and behaved. Larry was utterly shocked, even the other boy was a bit surprised by his own act.“Hey! How can you prove it’s me? How do you know it’s not some weird-ass jerk who wrote you a love letter as a prank? You’ve also been acting weird, do you know that? Sure maybe I’m a little awkward but it’s only because you are too!” The brunet snapped back, he held onto the other’s shoulder and pushed him back away a little.There was still anger in Sal’s eyes, but he did pause for a second at his friend’s words.“Why don’t you be more honest? I’ve been so anxious I just need you to tell me everything that’s on your mind!” He’s close to screaming now, the letter crumpled in his shaking hand. Maybe the sole reason of why he have been so laid back during most of his teenage years was to save up his energy for moments like this. For moments where he would mind a little too much about the business of the person who he held dearly onto.“Why? You’re not like my therapist or something! Why do I have to tell you everything?” Now Larry was the one who became more frustrated, he threw his hands up in the air. “Right. Fine. I wrote it. I wrote the damn thing! You happy?”“Wait so…” The strong emotions faded in Sal’s eyes, leaving a blank void of darkness. He could feel his brain went numb.“Don’t fret over it. It’s supposed to be some kind of joke. Yes it’s a prank, it’s bad, I’m a jerk who just wanted to see your reaction!” Mindlessly, Larry thought that saying this would solve all the problem. The false words ended up hurting himself in the chest more than he had imagined.Time seemed to be frozen in place. The brunet panicked as he watched tears began to form at the corners of his best friend’s eyes.“It’s...just a prank?” He broke down, hot tears fell down his cheeks. His face was covered with his hands. “How…how could you do this?”“No! No, no it’s not! I was only joking...oh god, why...I’m such a fucking idiot, please don’t cry…” Larry attempted to place his hand on top of Sal’s shoulder, but was smacked away within an instant.“I was prepared…! I thought you actually liked me but you just can’t admit it...I’m the idiot who was thinking too much…” More sobbing only made the taller boy felt more guilty, he wanted to apologize so badly but couldn’t find the right words.“I do! I fucking do! I like you!!” He shouted, he was beginning to tear up as well.“As a friend, you mean.” Warm fluid was dripping through the fingers.“No!” It was so loud. Both of them became quiet, the blue haired boy lowered his hand to look up at his friend, confusion growing in his heart.“What do you mean?” He raised his eyebrow, voice cracked and eyelids red from crying.“Fuck! More than a friend, like what I said in the goddamn letter!” Larry was suddenly fine with telling his friend the real answer. Somehow a barrier had been crossed, he was able to face the truth, and was not afraid of what might happen with their friendship afterward, at least for now.“You...like me?” The tears had ceased from falling. His mind still couldn’t catch up to what was happening.“Yeah, how many times do I have to say it?” Larry ran his hand through his dark long hair, gaze fixed on the floor, his face was brightly flushed.There was silence once again. They stood still in place for minutes until Sal hastily put on his mask and rushed out of his room without saying a word, the pink letter fell behind.“Wait!” The brunet stared at the opened door in horror. “Shit, I fucked up.”There were noises coming from below. Soon, hurried footsteps could be heard making its way upstairs.“What did you do this time?” Todd stopped typing on his computer. He turned himself around to face Sal, who was out of breath and had trouble speaking.“I...no, him…” The shorter boy had his hands on his knees.“Him?” The red head raised his brows, he stood up from his chair and walked over to Sal, then helped him sit down on a chair.Before Sal could utter anything, another noise came from the stairs. Todd rolled his eyes and shook his head when he saw Larry.“What’s going on?” Todd adjusted his glasses before letting out a long sigh.The brunet approached Sal, “Sorry, Sal, forget about it.”“Forget about it? Why are you doing this again? Would you just stop!” Sal stood up from his seat, he looked distressed. “I just want some alone time at the moment, and then we can talk about it later.”“Wait, no, guys,” Todd picked up another chair as he laughed lightly. “Sit down, we’ll talk about it, right here right now. None of you are getting away with it this time.”The boys whined. They sat down as they were told.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Neither of them were willing to face each other. Todd stared hard at them, waiting for whoever to speak first.He tapped his fingers rapidly on the table, creating small noises that made Sal frown with irritation. “Stop that.”“Well, then hurry up and tell me the issue. I still got stuff to do.” Todd glanced at the clock on the wall, he was growing inpatient.“The letter from this morning-”“It was me, I wrote the letter, and I’ve never regret my decision so much before.” Sal was interrupted, he glared at the taller boy, who wasn’t aware of it due to how his face was buried deep in his hands.“Okay,” Todd nodded, he already knew Larry wrote the letter, but he didn’t feel the need to mention that. “Then? What happened?”“As soon as I read the letter, I knew it was from Larry, but he just wouldn’t admit it,” Sal paused, he gazed down at the table as he speak, expression remaining blank. “I was so frustrated. Then when he finally did, I felt like I just needed some time to think, to calm down and shit. He just gotta make everything so much harder...”“It’s not like I mean to! I...I was...just...” The brunet shook his head. He was having difficulty to get the right words out.“You’re afraid to lose a best friend, that’s what’s troubling you, right?” Todd finished the other’s sentence.Larry nodded, “Yeah…”, and Sal sneered at that.“Alright, maybe what you should work on is to stop running away from your problems. So are you, Sal. Not trying to sound like a mom or something but,” The redhead cleared his throat before continuing, “This is something I kept on seeing between you both, just hiding something away from each other, even from yourself. You gotta face the reality.”Both of the boys became silent. They seemed to be deep in thought.“You're right, Todd. Thank you. I need to cool down…” Larry looked and sounded worn out, he left his seat and descended the stairs in a sloppy fashion.“He seems sad,” Todd turned around to look at Sal straight in the eye. “Tell me, Sal. What do you think of him? Please be honest.”“I…” The blue haired boy felt like he was in the process of interrogation. He was beginning to feel dizzy and there were cold sweat on his forehead. He clenched his fists so hard the nails dug into his palms. “I believe I do have feelings for him.”His heart was about to burst from his chest. He said it. He said what has been hidden inside his mind for a while. A sudden sense of relief washed over him, as well as the urge to scream.No more words were needed. Todd nodded and gave a smile akin to a proud parent. The redhead gave Sal's shoulder a nudge, oddly motivating him to dash down the stairs and find Larry.So then he did. It unfortunately created a dumb scene of him bumping into who he was looking for as soon as he got to the first floor.“Ow, Sorry!” Sal's prosthetic has a hard surface, both inside and outside. Whenever he bumps into someone, both sides gets hurt in most cases.“Ha ha, watch out!” Larry seemed fine, he was most likely just pretending to act normal, like he usually does when something went wrong.“Larry...I…” The shorter boy could hear his heart palpitating in a speed that he had never experienced before. He held onto Larry's hand only to notice how sweaty his own was. He leaned in a little closer, they were now only inches apart. “I still want you as my best friend…”“Oh…”“But even better if we're more than that…” It was nearly a whisper.The world stopped moving around them. The taller boy could see one of Sal's eyes shined as it curved into a crescent shape. He was smiling so widely under the prosthetic mask that the other could sense the warmth from inches away.“Really? You're not saying that just to comfort me?”“Why would I?” Sal approached closer and wrapped his arms around Larry. The other returned the hug. Both of their bodies were stiff and their breathing were restricted for some reason.Soon, they let go of each other as if they touched something forbidden. They have hugged each other several times over the years of their friendship, yet never with this much awkwardness before.“Dude, I thought I was hopeless to get with you.” Larry's face was bright red, so was the other boy’s.“I thought I have no chance to get anyone to like me.” They laughed, in a shy yet open way.A sudden wave of tiredness hit them, so they made their way to the couch and turned on the TV.“You look tired. Did you stay up late to write that cheesy letter?” Sal didn't actually think it was cheesy. In fact, he thought it was pretty dumb and cute.“Yeah I did. Damn, was it obvious?” Larry leaned back further into the couch. He turned to look at Sal with a big grin on his face.“Pfft, everyone knew.” Sal beamed back, he could still hear his heart beat.“Man, I'm so bad at this. What about you? You sound pretty tired.”“Heh, I had trouble falling asleep. I couldn't stop thinking who your crush might be.” He played with his hair, afraid to meet the other's curious eyes.“For real? Ha ha.” The brunet gazed at him with large round eyes, all the blood had gone to his cheeks.Once they ran out of topics, they stared at the TV screen for hours, watching boring shows and news. Neither of them were even paying attention to whatever was on the screen. Their minds were busy processing all the things that had happened, and along with the new feeling they were experiencing at the moment.Nonetheless, since dating someone would be the first time ever for both of them, there would be a lot of challenges for them to overcome. They knew they would have to take it slow for everything to work right.After dinner, Larry and Sal decided to watch a horror movie later at night.Sal was the one who suggested the idea. He mentioned how they haven't watched any together for a while now, especially since there were nightmares for the past months. Yet for the last few weeks, during the time when there was still tension between the two, somehow the nightmares has become less frequent in appearing.Despite how Larry appeared bigger and stronger than Sal was, he was more timid than anyone would have imagined. Sal always find it interesting to see his friend quail at any supernatural related topic, especially to stories with grotesque creatures. But that was all fictional, if it was something that was troubling them in the real life, he either chose to not believe it or take it really seriously. Sal understood that doing so was merely to protect himself, and the others around him.Holding a bowl of popcorn, the taller boy plopped down onto the floor, blue light illuminated from the TV screen depicted his facial features in the dark. “What are we watching? Some old classic stuff again?”“You bet.” Sal loved those sort of films, specifically the ones with disgusting monsters and gruesome scenes. He walked over to Larry with a blanket wrapped around him. Nighttime was usually a bit colder than any other time during the day.It was close to midnight, Todd and Neil were asleep, so they had to keep it down. It also means Sal could expose his bare face to the air. In case anything happens, he was prepared to quickly cover himself up with the blanket.Larry stared at the blue haired boy, utterly surprised when he motioned the brunet to join him under the blanket. “It’s just so cold.”He moved to the spot next to Sal, the temperature was instantly higher with two people snuggled together. Sal’s pale hand was on Larry’s momentarily before squeezing it lightly, “If you’re scared, I’m here.” Ah, what an angel.Nonetheless, Larry wanted to act tough in front of Sal. He wanted to show the boy that he wouldn’t be like how people knew him before, he would be different this time.He tried his best, and failed. They weren’t even thirty minutes in the movie. The brunet hoped the pretty boy next to him wouldn’t notice how he was shivering and squinting his eyes whenever one of the protagonists scream or when a loud sound effect shook him.However, Sal was keen, he was well aware of how terrified his friend was and how he was trying so hard not to be. Sal decided to play along with it, he restrained his urge to burst into laughter, and put on a soft smile instead.“Larry, Are you alright? Your face is a little pale.” Sal didn’t sound like he was mocking the other boy, yet Larry still felt somewhat embarrassed.“Dude, I’m fine. Probably because it’s too cold in here.”“You’re still cold? Here.” Larry didn't notice how the boy next to him was smirking. He was too busy trying to act normal and pretending to be drawn to the screen in front of him. His heartbeat increased in speed when the smaller boy beside him shifted closer next to him, their arms and knees were touching. It made it much harder for Larry to hide his shaking body, yet at the same time, he enjoyed the moment quite a lot. The mixed emotions were making him dizzy.After another hour of watching the movie. Larry has slowly become used to the sound effects, and was getting good at averting his gaze and let his mind wander when there was something horrifying showing on the screen. Even Sal was beginning to feel impressed.“Wow. Larry, you’re so calm today! Are you getting used to watching scary stuff already?” Was he teasing? The other couldn’t tell from his voice.“Yeah, I feel like I actually might be immune to it now!” Larry laughed lightly. He wished that was the truth. And yet he couldn’t even look at how bad his hands were shaking.They remained silent till the end. Larry couldn’t even believe that he actually made it through without vomiting all over the floor. He thanked himself for not consuming too much popcorn during the movie.It wasn’t until the brunet almost tripped when he stood up with his wobbly legs. Sal held onto him and made sure he could walk properly before he let him go. As soon as Larry found his balance, Sal couldn’t help but burst into laughter.Larry’s face was flushed with embarrassment. “Shh! They could hear us.”“Oh my god,” The blue haired wiped tears away with his sleeve, he put one hand over his mouth, his body shaking with repressed laughter. “You’re so scared.”“Shut up.” The other boy pouted.“Are you gonna be okay at night?” Sal turned off the TV as he yawned. He looked as if he could fell asleep at any second.“Yeah, don’t worry.”They both believed everything would be fine as they made their way toward their bedroom. After saying good night to each other, Sal noticed something wrong as he opened his own door. Larry was standing in front of his door, he bit down on his lower lip while his body was frozen in place.“What are you doing?” The taller one nearly jumped at the question. He didn’t expect Sal to stare suspiciously at him.“It’s gonna be really dark in there…” His voice was small to the point that it was almost inaudible.“Yeah it will. So what about it?” The blue haired boy paused for a second before grinning widely. “Are you scared to go in? How about I come with you?”Larry kindly refused his friend’s considerate suggestion. He had promised himself to be brave that night and hopefully in the future as well.After Sal had stayed inside his own room for minutes, he decided to go check on Larry to only found him remaining in the same place with a blank expression. That was when Sal insisted to head inside his room with the brunet.Larry was pouting like a child, and Sal found that silly in a cute way. However, as he was about to head back to his own room, the brunet felt his emotions flowing out and couldn't stop himself to grab onto his friend's hand.“Can you...stay here?”Sal blushed deeply, he was glad the room was dim with only a nightlight on. He knew Larry was only meaning to kept him because he was scared, not that there were any other reasons. Yet he still couldn't help and ponder the possibilities.But the boys were too tired to think about doing any other things beside sleeping. They settled comfortably onto the bed. Neither of them dared to cuddle in with each other yet. Even just the thought of simply putting one arm over the other's side made their fingertips tingle with uneasiness.The glass beside the bed was filled with clear water and a cleaned glass eye. The shorter boy flipped over to trace out the details of his friend in the darkness. The taller one has fallen asleep soundly. Sal leaned his head deeper into the pillow, taking in the scent of Larry, the same familiar smell with that shirt he had accidentally wiped his face with weeks ago. It was oddly comforting, and he couldn't get enough of it.
The next thing he knew, he was in a pitch-black void. There was no light nor signs of life. Yet there were weird symbols floating around unnaturally, existing against the laws of physics. Somehow, he remembered seeing the place, a sense of familiarity hit him.

A sudden thud came from a distance. Soon, the wandering boy encountered a bloodcurdling creature of some sort. The goat-like creature was illuminated by ominous red light. It spoke an unknown language with a low, hoarse voice, causing him to feel nauseous. Soon, the beast revealed the lost boy a mirror with a click of its twisted tongue.

The mirror did not show the boy's reflection, instead, a reflection of a place he felt nostalgic when he saw it. A place where he desperately wanted to return to, but couldn't recall the name and the memories associated with it. The sad boy yelled something unknown at the mirror, causing it to crack and the vision to glitch. Soon, there was another voice shouting from the other side of the mirror, screaming something of what might've been the boy's own name. His long forgotten name.
Someone was vigorously shaking him awake, calling his name over and over. “Sal, Sal...Sally Face! Wake up! Sal!!”His mouth was dry, and his face was wet with sweat and...tears? Sal stared into space for a moment before sitting up abruptly, remembering something. He turned to face Larry, who looked extremely worried.The shorter boy fell into the other's arms, shuddering. “Where were you…?” His voice was all cracked and fragile.“I'm right here! I never left!” Larry wrapped his arms tightly around Sal. He knew the question was regarding to the ‘Larry’ in the dream, but he did not have any clue as to how to answer that.“You're somewhere really far away, unreachable...the demon…” Sal coughed uncontrollably, his words were stuck in his throat as if some outer force was stopping him from saying anything further.Larry gave a couple of gentle pats to Sal's back, “Fuck. It's here again? In our dreams? After everything is back to normal, it's trying to make us suffer again!” The brunet sounded exhausted yet filled with rage. After calming down, he murmured into the other's ear. “It's okay, Sal...I'm safe, you're safe. Even if it happens again, we’ll at least have each other by our side now.”He was right. They were living together, which meant that they no longer need a walkie-talkie whenever something horrid happens, and nothing could change the fact that they would always be by each other's side.

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sal reached over to the night table, and flinched when he realized he was grabbing onto the glass with his eye in it. He almost wanted to drink the thing, and this wasn’t the first time he had made the mistake.“I’m sorry for waking you, was I crying?” He rubbed his eyes and winced at how much it stung, he must've scratched it during his sleep, salty tears only made it worse.“Yeah, you were crying and calling my name. Scared the shit out of me,” Larry jumped out of bed, he grabbed a tissue and began to dab around Sal’s face really carefully. “Dude, don’t ever be sorry about this, I understand how bad it can be. Do you want some water?”“Thanks, and yes.” He definitely needed something to drink, the back of his throat felt like desert and he was having trouble to talk smoothly.After returning with a glass of water, Larry sat down by the side of bed, aligning his shoulders with Sal’s.“Do you think...somehow those dreams, are connected in any way?” Those words were exactly what Sal was pondering about. A headache hit Sal, he pressed his fingers onto his temple.“Perhaps, there is a possibility, they all seem to be leading us somewhere, to some sort of answer,” The shorter boy swallowed some water, he instantly felt much better. He glanced over at Larry with his left eye glistening. “But we don’t know yet, and...let’s not talk about it for now, it gives me a headache.”“No worries dude. We can talk about it once you’re okay with it.”“Also,” Sal gulped the rest of the water, then placed the glass onto the night table. “Why are you still calling me dude?”The brunet tilted his head, he was confused by what the other meant. “‘Cause that’s how I call you?”“But that makes it feel like...I’m just a friend. I want something more special, something just between you and me.” The blue haired boy gazed at the other, his cheeks were tinted red.“Hm…let me think about it,” Larry averted his eyes, his face grew warmer. “How about, just Sal? No, Sally?”“Whatever makes you feel right.” Sal shrugged, he beamed sheepishly.“Sally it is then. It's what I can think of for now, but if I got another idea I will let you know.”“Sounds cool.”There was silence for a while. They were both shocked from the night terror, and have to zone out for a bit in order to let their mind relax.They left the nightlight on before laying back onto the bed. Both of them were facing each other, they weren't tired enough to sleep, therefore they ended up just staring at each other. The dim light embraced both of them, making their facial features blur in a mesmerizing way. They examined every delicate details on the other's face and how angelic each other looked in their eyes, and just how much they were not willing to take their eyes away.One of Larry's hands ended up unintentionally touching Sal's relaxed hand on his side. He didn't know how it got there, but their hands were sharing warmth and they just wanted to treasure this small moment of joy.“Hey…” Sal softly whispered, his left eye was half lidded.“What's that? Sally.” Both of the boys had chills hearing the unfamiliar call of the name. They wanted to giggle but held it back in, their bodies were shaking uncontrollably.“Did you have your first kiss?” The shaking ceased when Sal finally asked the question that was on his mind for more than ten minutes. He shifted his hand for it to gain more contact with the brunet's.The brunet blinked, he looked like he wanted to hide away and scream. “No, you?”“No…” The blue haired boy pressed his lips together and focused on the Sanity’s Fall logo in front of him instead. He swore he could hear his own heartbeat.“Can I have yours?” Larry smiled sheepishly.“Wh...?” He stared at the brunet with mouth and eye both wide opened. He convinced himself that Larry said so only because he was sleepy, and he didn't actually mean it.“Ah…” The brunet sat up, he awkwardly brushed his long hair off to the side. He appeared to be deep in thought about something, and was afraid to look in the other's direction.Cold air made its way under the blanket. Sal pouted, “Hey, it's cold!” He held onto the other boy's arm and pulled him in again.Sal thought doing so would only bring Larry in the bed again and prevent any more cold air from coming in, but he was wrong. He didn't realize how harsh he pulled the other due to anxiousness, and caused the brunet to stumble and fell onto himself.Sal squinted his eye before reopening it, and found Larry staring down at him. He was on top of Sal.The sudden gasp caused the shorter boy to choke on saliva, he coughed as he sat up straight, which made the other lose his balance and ended up leaning onto Sal in a hopeless fashion.“Oh god, I'm so sorry…” They apologized in unison, the situation was so weird it made them laugh like idiots uncontrollably.Two awkward teens readjusted their position. Their legs were folded underneath and their knees were touching each other. It was odd for no reason, they both felt like little girls who were about to discuss something important.It was cold and both boys were dying to get under the blanket as soon as they could. And yet their minds were running thousand miles and they couldn't move until they have fulfilled whatever they wished to attempt. They both screamed ‘why now?' inside their heads, but really it was merely an instinct, a feeling that it must be accomplished right now. The timing was weird but it felt significant.They took in a deep breath. Sal took Larry's hand in his. Larry shuddered at the icy cold hand, somehow Sal's hand was always colder comparing to his. They stared at each other for a long time, deep dark brown meeting a clear, mysterious cyan blue. Sal lightly squeezed Larry's hand before leaning in closer, the other did the same until they were only inches apart.They've seen movies and shows where people only kiss with their eyes closed. So they closed their eyes as well, blindly guessing the distance of the person in front them. Next, they let fate took control while they inched toward each other, simply hoping their lips would meet at one point. Because that's how a average couple kiss, right?Sal didn't know when to breathe, neither did Larry. It felt like hours have passed, and they haven't even got to each other yet. Sal was the one who backed away all of a sudden, he was out of breath. The abrupt movement made Larry jump, he opened his eyes with fear and thought he accidentally did something he wasn’t supposed to.“Shit, sorry, I forgot to breathe.”“Fucking same.” They giggled as if it was all a joke, ignoring how numb their legs were becoming.“Let's try again.” This time, their breathing was more steady, and they were aiming toward each other with more accuracy, much to their relief. Successful. It was only a moment, a few milliseconds. More like a brush on the lips than a kiss. Not as euphoric as they imagined, yet joyous enough to motivate them on trying again.The second time was more impassioned. Elated, they held their hands tighter together, feeling every exhale from their noses and how soft the other's lips were. The kiss lasted more than ten seconds. Suddenly, Sal’s hand was on where Larry’s mole was, and the brunet has his hand gently tracing the details of the other boy’s. Their lips remained still, but their breathing became heavier, and their hands had found its own way to move wherever they wanted to.When they finally pulled apart, their eyes appeared deep and avid, as if something new had been discovered. Larry still had his hand on Sal’s face, he gazed into the hollowness of the empty eye socket, completely drawn into it. He then traced his fingers over the scars once again, admiring it more than ever.Sal lowered his head, he had his hand over his mouth as he began to shiver lightly. “What’s wrong?” The brunet was worried.“No, it’s just that...I’m too happy, I never thought this would happen to me one day. I always thought nobody would-”Larry hugged him tight before he could utter any other word. “Why wouldn't it happen to you? I can't say this enough and I won't ever be, but you're so damn pretty, I…”He pressed his lips and froze in place. The last three words were stuck in his throat. Maybe it was still too early to say it. However, Sal was smiling like he didn't even care if he would say it or not, he was so content.“Thanks, Lar.”They returned back to bed and couldn't stop smiling. Larry was laying on his side, facing Sal's back. They were warm and happy and ready to sleep.The shorter boy couldn't tell if the brunet was asleep, as he never really snored. But a hand was rested on top of his hip out of the blue, an alarm went off in his head and it awakened him. The specific spot of where it touched was tingling, he never felt so stirred before.He could then feel hot air on the concave curve of his neck. Larry was snuggling close to Sal, his chest was in contact with the other's back and he almost had his head on the shoulder.Sal turned his head just enough to see if he was asleep. Turned out that he was, his eyes were shut and each breath was long and deep.But choosing the neck was wrong, it was a wrong spot. Sal never knew how sensitive his neck was until then. The subtle tickling sensation along with the heat made the spot numb and felt as if it was melting.The hand subconsciously made its way upward, and eventually slid right under the boy's shirt and let itself sweep all over his lean upper body.Perhaps he was just cold, which was understandable. The blue haired boy decided to not overthink it.However, when careless fingers glided over one of his nipples. He couldn't help but let out a moan as he bit down his lower lip.Alright, maybe the other boy was asleep, and he wouldn't have hear it. Unfortunately, the brunet was only half-asleep, and blinked as he mumbled sleepily, “Sally, did you say something?”

----- CHAPTER BREAK -----

Sal tried his best to act calm, and it worked.“No, maybe I made a noise while I’m asleep?”“‘Kay,” Much to Sal’s surprise, Larry leaned in closer to him, he had his head over the shoulder of the other boy as he yawned. “You’re so warm, can I stay like this?”“Sure, whatever…” Sal ignored the warmness on his face as he attempted to pull the brunet's hand away from his body.That was when Larry finally realized that his hand was under Sal's shirt the entire time. Ninety percent awaken, he quickly pulled his hand away. “God, I'm sorry. It's a habit of mine, I tend to touch and grab things in my sleep. I probably thought you're a cat or something, all soft and warm…” He blushed at his own words.The shorter boy giggled, “That might be sort of an issue in the future. And a cat? Am I getting possessed by Gizmo?”“Maybe.” Larry let out a soft laugh. “But damn, if this happens again, you can slap my hand or push it away.”“Noted. But um, I'm fine with just…” Sal reached over and took the other's hand in his, fingers interlocked. “This way, your hand won't go anywhere and will be warm at the same time.” He secretly admitted that he also just wanted to held onto the brunet's hand as long as he could.“Nice,” Larry was too shocked to come up with any other words, his heart was filled with joy. “This makes us look like, boyfriends…”“Aren't we already dating?” Sal laughed at how they have to make sure that it was happening. The concept of dating was new, and fun, and exciting. It added a whole new purpose to both of their lives.“You're right, I’m being dumb.” The brunet squeezed Sal's hand lightly.They fell asleep soon afterward. Everything was perfect. Perfectly warm, perfectly nice, perfectly happy with each other.Yet things were unexpected. When Larry woke up, his body felt heavy and uncomfortable. It wasn't until he managed to sit up, he finally felt the sickening wetness inside his pajama pants. To his relief, Sal had already woke up and was nowhere to be seen. Thank god.That was when he had an abrupt flashback of his dream.
Larry hungered for something. He wasn't sure what it was until he saw this angelic figure laying in front of him. It was...Sal, but something was different about him, he appeared more tantalizing than usual. Somehow the boy was wearing this white shirt with it unbuttoned all the way, and he didn't have any other clothes on.

They kissed in an affectionate way, over and over again. Everything felt hot and slick and overstimulating. Sal was pinned onto the bed and Larry noticed how his skin was pale like snow throughout the entire body, and how soft it was to touch. His body had a delicate curve, almost feminine. The brunet kissed and left marks on every inch of Sal's flawless body. Then at one point all he could hear was how Sal moan and cry out his name, and how everything was buzzing around him…
The brunet only remembered that much of the dream, yet it was lecherous enough to make him furious at his own mind. He had never fantasized about Sal in that way, and now it just popped up in his dream, it didn't make any sense.He punched his pillow and covered his burning face with his hands. He felt guilty and ashamed for no reason.All Larry had to do was to sneak out the room without getting noticed by anyone. Unfortunately, Sal walked in before he could even get out of bed.“Morning, Lar. Good that you're awake, I made breakfast!” Sal haven't sounded so cheerful in a long time, his good eye curved into crescent shape along with a smile under the prosthetic mask.Larry had never tried Sal's cooking before, as he never attempted to cook in the first place.But it was not the right timing. “Morning, uh...I will get out in a second, it's so cold.” He pulled the cover up a bit more, failing to meet the eyes of the person who he just had an indecent dream of.“Alright, but you better hurry up, food will get cold.”Before Sal returned to the kitchen, Larry couldn't help but blurted, “You look so cute.”He was. He had an apron on and had his hair tied up in a bun. The shorter boy blushed, “Stop, you'll get used to seeing it in the future.”“I would never!”They laughed. Once Sal left the room, Larry hopped out of bed and grabbed some clean clothes from his drawer. He quickly made his way toward the bathroom.Sal spotted him, he had his hands on his hips. “Wait, where are you going?”“I'm just going to wash my face.” Oh no, he was approaching toward the brunet.“With clothes? Don't tell me you're going to take a shower.” He looked down at the clothes the other was holding.“I am.” Larry smiled awkwardly, hoping he could get away soon enough.“Why don't you do it after breakfast? Ahh damn I should've made it after you got up…”The taller boy could tell that Sal was blaming himself for it, he panicked and tried to come up with something to say, “I will take the shower very fast I promise!”“But it's just pancakes, it won't take very long to eat, unless…” Sal squinted at Larry, who's heart skipped a beat at the piercing stare. “You're hiding something from me.”“No, no, I'm just too cold and sweaty so I gotta-”“Hm, but something's telling me it's not just because of that.” The stare grew harder.Larry gave out a hopeless sigh. He debated on whether to tell Sal the truth and maybe get hated for it, or simply tolerate the disgusting moist sensation for about ten minutes.He chose the later. He didn't want to take the high risk. “You're overthinking, Sally. But fine I will have breakfast first then.”However, it was too late anyway. The blue haired continued to held on suspicion as the other sat down at the dining table.But Larry didn't mind as much about it when a plate of weird looking pancakes and scrambled eggs was placed in front of him.“Wow, very interesting looking.” The brunet snorted as he picked up the smallest piece of pancake with his fork, it was almost the size of a piece of cookie.“Appreciate the art. I think I may be getting some artistic vibes from you.”“I'm more proud than ever. But despite the look, it tastes pretty good.”“Really? Maybe I'm actually good at cooking!” Sal grinned as he took a long sip of his tea.The house was quiet. According to Sal, Todd and Neil were out for classes, and they had no idea the two got together, but Todd might've guessed it.“Okay,” The shorter boy stood by the sink, he took a glance at Larry before he began to wash the dishes. “So now can you tell me what's up?”“Fine, right after my shower.” He was getting ten times more uncomfortable than when he first got out of bed, he had an urge to throw up.Sal sighed in a half-joking way. “Fiiiiine.” He giggled when the brunet came up and placed a light kiss on his prosthetic.The shower took about fifteen minutes. The blue haired boy had his mask taken off and placed beside him, he was playing games on his phone at the couch when Larry came out and sat down beside him.Sal didn't look up as he said, “I know you had a wet dream.” His expression was unreadable even without the mask. His boyfriend stared into space with a towel around his neck, too shocked to process what was going on.When Sal didn't receive any response, he closed his phone and turned around, he had a subtle smirk and Larry found that enchanting. “It was obvious.”The brunet leaned back into the couch, he had his hands on his face. “Whyyyy is everything obvious to youuuu?”The other boy bursted into laughter. “You're so dumb that's what I like about you.”“Really?” Larry blinked at him through the gaps between his fingers. “Is that the reason you fell for me?”“Of course not!” The blue haired boy laughed again, ignoring how his face began to grew warm. “But um, what's the dream about?”The brunet panicked a little, he sensed guilt crawling up his spine even though he hasn't done anything wrong. “You…it was about you and me. Fuck, I'm so sorry, I wasn't thinking about you that way but somehow it just happened…”“Don't be sorry, I get it.” Sal focused his gaze on the floor, he felt a little awkward despite that he knew it wasn't the other's fault. “I never really think about those stuff either so it really annoys me when things like this happen.”“Thanks for understanding. Man I don't know but I still feel bad. Even if it's just a dream I still feel like I did something horrible.” Larry had one hand on his forehead, his expression plus the pose made him look like a heartbroken school girl and Sal had to bit down his lip to not laugh at that.“Hey, is it a horrible thing to fuck with me?” Sal joked, only to realize that the other's face turned bright red at his words. Larry had probably taken it half-seriously.“No, no! but uh…” The brunet scratched his beard awkwardly. “Just thought you might not like the idea of it…?” God, he didn't know what he was saying.“I mean, I never tried to or wanted to, but that's only because I didn't think anyone'd like me.”The concept of sex was new yet not unfamiliar. They'd only get limited, and most likely false information from media.Their parents never bothered to explain things to them as well. Most importantly, they didn't even know how two guys do it. The only possible way to learn would be to ask the boyfriends living upstairs. The conclusion came to mind at the same time inside Sal and Larry's mind, but they knew the topic was still too early so they decided to not bring it up.“But for now I'm happy with just kissing you.” Sal scooched in closer and lightly kissed the other on his cheek.They kissed each other on their cheeks, forehead, and then lips several times. All rather lighthearted and carefree. At one point, Sal moved in closer and eventually straddled on the other's lap. He wasn't thinking of doing anything more intimate; he did so only because he wanted to be able to kiss and talk to his boyfriend easier.“So speaking of weird dreams...did you remember, uh...few weeks ago, I was suddenly mean to you one day?”The brunet thought about it as he stroked the other boy's azure hair. “I guess? What about it?”“I couldn't tell you before, but now I can. So I actually had a dream about you and me...” He beamed widely before realizing how easily his words could be misunderstood. His face crimsoned and he continued to explain. “I mean! We were just hanging out in the treehouse. We were very close and then we tried to kiss or something.”“Oh, that’s why you were acting so weird.” The brunet grinned. “Was that how you found out you have a crush on me?”“No I didn't like you at that time. So that's why I was frustrated.” Sal pouted like a child and averted his gaze.“Ouch.” Larry playfully poked Sal on the cheek, which made the other chuckle.The blue haired boy leaned in closer to press his lips against the other’s. They almost jumped when they heard the front door open. Sal quickly hopped off his boyfriend’s legs and strapped on his mask before meeting a suspicious gaze from Todd at the doorway.“Today's lecture ended early. Neil still got some work to do so I got home earlier. Oh and you two seem like you're having fun.” He deadpanned as he set his bags aside and took off his shoes.That was when Sal realized that a few strands of his hair fell messily from his bun and his prosthetic mask was a bit crooked in place. While Larry on the couch also had messed up hair, along with a flushed face.Sal glanced at Larry, wondering if he should tell Todd about it. The brunet seemed to read his concern, he shrugged then nodded.“Um Todd? You wanna know something?”“That you two got together? Congrats.” Todd picked up his stuff and smiled at them like a proud older sibling.“Did you assumed because of yesterday?” Larry stood up from the couch.“Well, I just kind of know.” The redhead shrugged.Before Todd headed upstairs, he mentioned that if they got any more concerns, they could go talk to him.Sal fixed his prosthetic back in place. “Hey uh, I’m thinking about hanging the painting on the wall, would you like to help me?” After Larry agreed to lend a hand, they got into Sal’s room and began to gather all the necessary stuff.It took no more than fifteen minutes to set the painting in place. They were both amazed by good it looked in Sal’s room.Larry noticed how Sal brought one hand up to examine it closely. “What’s wrong?”“My nail polish is chipping, look.” He showed his fingers to the brunet. Some black nail polish peeled off on both the ring and middle finger, while the rest remained perfect. “And I just redid them yesterday.”“That sucks, did it happen while you hung the painting?”“Yeah.” Sal nodded while picking on the chipped nail polish with his thumb.The taller boy stared into space for a moment before perking up with excitement, “How about...I redo them for you?”Sal stared at him with big, rounded eye, he was shocked. “What? You know how to do it?”“I paint my nails a couple of times back in school! Remember? And I’m pretty good at it, but then I got lazy to do it, and I also hate it when it peels.” He wasn’t lying. He used paint his nails in black, red, and sometimes even neon colors. “For real? I thought Ash did them for you, it was too perfect.”Larry smirked in a joking way, “Don’t believe me? Let’s find out.”Sal hummed disbelievingly as he motioned the brunet to sit down at his desk, he pulled out his nail polish remover as well as the black nail polish from his drawer. When Larry patiently worked on the nails, he admitted that his skills was quite impressive. It didn’t took him long but every single movement seemed to be perfectly calculated, this must be what people call a talent.Whenever Sal painted his own nails, he have to pay extra attention and restrict his breath for at least thirty minutes, and at times he would make tiny mistakes and would have to redo them couple of times over. An infuriating and time-consuming process.His stomach churned in a pleasant way as he watched his boyfriend pay full attention on his fingers. The brunet was extremely focused on the details as well as every tiny movements. And Sal found him rather attractive like that. Somehow, Sal could feel his blood rushing south. He didn’t understand what was up with him. All he knew was that he have absolutely zero control over his body.His body’s timing has always been off. It wouldn’t choose the time when they kiss, nor the time when they were in bed together. And it had to be right now, with the other boy concentrating hard on making his nails more beautiful than ever.Sal cursed under his breath, quiet enough so the other won’t hear it. He decided to ignore the strain on his crotch for the moment, and believed that the brunet probably wouldn’t find out due to how he was so focused.“Done.” Larry took his hand and placed a light kiss on it, doing so only made Sal’s condition worse. “ Y'know, you got really beautiful fingers. Um, so, what do you think of my work?”“Wow. It’s perfect! I wish I am as good as you.” He wanted to run away as soon as possible.“If you want, I can continue to do yours in the future.” The brunet smiled at his own work. He didn’t seem to notice how Sal swiftly crossed his legs in an anxious manner.“That’s a great idea. Maybe I can try and do yours too.” Sal beamed back, he realized that it was a great chance to flee. “I’m just gonna go use the bathroom real quick.”Just as he stood up from his chair, the brunet almost freaked out. “No! Wait till it dries first!”Sal didn’t thought of that. He plopped back down onto the chair and felt his knees grew weak. He was glad his mask prevented the other to see his expression. But not for long, Larry reached his hand over and unstrapped his mask.“I just want to see you.” He inched closer, allowing Sal to press his lips against his. The brunet moved his chair closer toward Sal, he leaned in to wrap his arms around the boy and whispered softly beside his ears, “What’s turning you on?”Sal's ears tickled. His blushed deeply as he averted his gaze and focused on the well-painted fingernails. “Just amazed at...how perfect you did them.” It was a funny answer, yet that was all he could come up with.“Heh, thanks.” Larry lowered his voice, as if there were other people in the room. “Do you...need help?”“With what?” He pretended not knowing what the other meant, but his flushed cheeks were mercilessly giving out all the answers.And yet he ached . Especially with the brunet being so close to him, the thirst was real and he would only end up miserable if he refuse to deal with the problem. “Shit...I-uh, I do need it…” His voice was almost inaudible.“Okay. Just don’t move your hand.” The situation was worse than ever for the shorter boy. Not moving the hand basically meant that he had to sit still at the same spot, as moving other parts of the body wouldn’t help him get away with anything.“Ahh. I’m sorry, this isn’t supposed to happen but it just…” Sal sighed, he was embarrassed and he looked like he might cry at any given time.Larry cupped his hand onto Sal’s cheek, “Hey, Sally, don’t worry. I guess we both have weird bodies, like what happened to mine this morning.” He decided to go slow. He waited until Sal has calmed down, then kissed Sal again.Sal found himself melting into the kiss. It was not carefree and light like the other ones they’ve had. It was more heated, more deep. They didn’t know how their tongues ended up tangling each other, but it was pleasurable and they were craving for each other like never before.He didn’t know how sensitive his body could be, even through fabric, every gentle touch on his neck, his waist, and his hips made him feel as if he might faint and melt into the other’s touch.“Hurry...Lar, i-it hurts…” Tears began to form at the corner of Sal’s left eye as Larry slowly tugged at his pants. The brunet’s heart thumped with thrill as he handled gently on the throbbing erection.Sal gasped at how cold Larry’s hand was against his thing, despite that his hand was already warmer than normal standard. At first, the shorter boy couldn’t get used to the feeling of somebody else touching him, it felt really strange but in a nice way.The brunet proceeded to give a few gentle strokes at first, then gradually sped up the pace. The shorter boy moaned at the sheer pleasure washing over him, he bit down his lower lip almost hard enough to draw blood. “Oh...oh...my god…fuck...”Sal’s breath was getting unsteady, he wondered if he was more sensitive down there than other people because he never really tried to do anything experimental with his dick.The way how Sal mewled and squirmed for the anticipated release was the most amorous thing Larry had ever seen. The brunet was getting hard himself just by looking at him.Not even five minutes have passed until a sudden quiver sent down the blue haired boy's spine as he hit the climax. A tear fell down on his crimsoned cheek as he let out a moan of bliss.“Wow. When was the last time you...you know?” Larry stared down at the unexpected amount of translucent white cum on his hands, a few had spattered on both of their shirts.“If you mean touching myself then...I can’t even recall now that I think of it.” He still felt somewhat embarrassed so he lowered his head wearily on top of his desk. Hoping that the cold, hard surface would help his flushed cheeks chill down a bit. “That’s why this is kind of, new, for me.”“Oh, I see. Heh, I feel like someone special now.” Larry leaned in and kissed Sal lightly on his forehead. “I'm going to the bathroom to get changed, do you want me to take your shirt so I can throw both of ours in the laundry?”“That'll be nice. Oh, and, thank you.” The shorter boy beamed as he sat up straight and took off his tainted shirt.Once the brunet left, Sal felt drained so he fell asleep on his desk half-naked.When he woke up with drool on the side of his face, someone had laid a blanket on top of him, and yet he still shivered at the cold.He sneezed. That was not a good sign.