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Walter’s been told
many times
that his pining over his best friend is the most obvious thing in the world. First, it was his sister who almost immediately asked if he was crushing on Henry the first time he called her to talk about school and the friends he'd made.
Frida was four years older than he was and had also gone to Hillerska, so she’d wanted to know how he was doing outside of their family phone calls. She’d also known he was gay since he was little, even before their parents did.
He asked how she knew and all she said was that it was obvious.
Then it was his mom that asked him. It was a few months after the start of the year and he and Henry had gone swimming in the lake. It was practically frozen, but it had been a dare, and who were they to chicken out? He’d sent a picture of them both to his family group chat, hair dripping and hanging in their eyes, arms wrapped around each other’s bare chests, and grinning broadly into the camera even as they shivered. His family had only heard about Henry and everything they’d been up to, they’d never seen him or a picture of him. As soon as she saw it, his mom texted him privately and asked if he liked Henry. He’d sputtered indignantly at his phone, but ultimately he couldn’t lie to his mom. She could always see right through him. She’d said she had her suspicions because of how he couldn’t go one single conversation without mentioning Henry but when she saw the picture of them together, they looked so comfortable with each other and completely smitten, she had to ask.
Thankfully, it wasn’t long after Walter’s mom figured him out until Wilhelm came to school and everyone’s attention was solely on him. He could pine over Henry as much and as obviously as he wanted and nobody would notice because they were too busy focusing on the prince. Or so he thought.
He did last long enough that it was post-The Video, but Stella eventually came up to him and asked if he was dating Henry. Didn’t even ask if he was crushing on him. She straight up asked if they were dating. Walter thought he’d pass out then and there.
So, the number of people in Walter’s life who knew he was hopelessly in love with Henry went up to three.
After The Video, Walter really felt for Wille and Simon. It was obvious they were both hurting after Wille denied that it was him in the video even though all the students knew it was. However, if everybody didn’t get their shit together, Walter was going to commit a hate crime. Obviously, it wasn’t all of the students since the third years had always been, and will always be, jerks, but some of the students were trying their best to make Wille and Simon more comfortable by making it apparent they were allies. Which was all nice and dandy for them but people were going as far as to comment on how nobody was homophobic and how they’d dealt with Henry and Walter being all over each other and touching all the time; so how different could it be to watch them do it?
And sure, maybe Henry was touchy by nature and Walter was hopelessly in love with him, so it wasn’t like he was going to tell him to stop. But now everybody was
watching them
and it felt like everybody could see that Walter was in love with Henry just by looking at them. Alexander even came and asked him when he came out and wondered how he missed it. He hadn’t missed it. Walter was
not
out at school. He was gay and he was going to commit a hate crime.
The thing is, though, because he’d been told so often that his crush on Henry was
incredibly obvious,
Walter was under the impression that Henry knew how he felt and didn’t know how to let him down easily, so he chose not to bring it up. At least, that’s what he thought.
Neither Henry nor Walter were entirely sure what time they’d stumbled out of the party. All they knew was that Henry was clutching a bottle of vodka and Walter was desperately trying to pretend to be sober because
somebody
had to be the responsible one, and it sure wasn’t going to be Henry who was drunk off his ass. Although, if he was being honest with himself, Walter had his fair share of sips from Henry’s bottle when the other boy wasn’t looking. And when Henry noticed and pressed the bottle to Walter’s lips himself, his other hand under Walter’s chin, tilting his head up. Okay, Walter wasn’t fooling anybody, he was drunk.
“Where the fuck are you going?” Henry hissed after Walter as they stumbled through the grass, Henry following Walter blindly.
“Why are we whispering?” Walter asked, mimicking Henry’s hiss of a whisper only for Henry to give him the middle finger. Both boys dissolved into laughter after that, collapsing against the trunk of a big tree before sliding to the ground.
They were quiet for several minutes as they passed the bottle back and forth between them. Finally, Henry broke the silence.
“I can’t believe they’re closing the school.” Henry finally admitted in a soft whisper; in the tone of vulnerability that only comes with being drunk.
“Maybe something could change. It doesn’t feel right to close it.” Walter admitted honestly. Even if there were some bad parts of Hillerska, it didn’t feel right not to have it.
“I don’t know what I’ll do without you.” Henry continued almost like Walter hadn’t spoken at all. He almost sounded teary. Walter turned his head to gaze at Henry and found him splayed out on his stomach with his chin resting on Walter’s thigh. When did he get there?
“You won’t be without me. I won’t let it happen. We’ll figure something out.” Walter slurred, trying to speak fast enough that the meaning behind his words wouldn’t catch up with him and make him cry. Henry offered him a halfhearted smile and turned his head so his cheek was on Walter’s thigh and he was gazing up at Walter. He couldn’t resist the urge to run his fingers through Henry’s hair anymore. Henry’s eyes fluttered shut at the contact and he sighed heavily.
“Wherever we go, we have to pick the same school.” Henry mumbled, nuzzling his cheek against the soft material of Walter’s pants and effectively setting Walter’s face on fire.
“It might not be that easy, Hen.” Walter reasoned. Sometimes he resulted to pessimism to protect his heart. Sue him.
“We
have to.”
Henry whined, wrapping his arm tightly around Walter’s waist, and digging his fingers into his hip. Now, he really did sound teary.
“Hey.”
Walter started softly, almost feeling like he was trying to calm a wild animal. “What’s the matter?” he asked, smoothing his hand over Henry’s curls and across his forehead.
“You’re my best friend. I don’t want to leave you.” he cried and,
oh,
when he looked up at Walter again tears were shining in his eyes, a few of which trailed down his cheeks when he blinked.
“Henry, we’ll be alright.” Walter promised him, gently nudging Henry off his knee so he could move down to his level. Walter managed to swing himself around so he was also laying on his stomach right in front of Henry. He reached forward and held on tight to Henry’s shoulders, giving him a gentle shake. “I’ll always be your best friend. Please don’t cry.” Walter mumbled, still shaking Henry’s shoulders as he spoke. Henry sniffled softly and Walter reached up to wipe the tears off his cheeks. Henry let his head fall forward with a heavy sigh, resting his forehead against Walter’s. Walter let his eyes fall shut as Henry’s shaky breath hit his cheeks, basking in being so close to him.
Walter heard a soft noise come out of Henry’s mouth but before he could even open his eyes to investigate, warm lips were being pressed to his. His eyes flew open but he didn’t possess enough self-control on a normal day to pull away if Henry was kissing him and he definitely didn’t when he was drunk. He just sunk into it and kissed Henry back, letting his lowered inhibitions dictate his actions.
When Henry pulled away, panting against Walter’s lips, Walter let out a disbelieving laugh.
“What the fuck?” Walter whispered, grinning when Henry giggled.
“I couldn’t let the year end without doing that at least once. Sorry. I’m drunk. I won’t do it again.” Henry promised, quickly sitting up and curling in on himself, thinking Walter was upset about the kiss.
The part of Walter’s brain that still had some common sense knew they really should not have this conversation or continue kissing when they were drunk. The part of his brain that had shut off the moment Henry’s lips touched his, though, was taking over.
“Fuck that.” Walter’s loose lips exclaimed before quickly tugging on Henry’s hand to pull him forward, almost all the way into Walter’s lap. Henry gasped, realizing what was happening mere moments before Walter kissed him again. Henry quickly crawled fully into Walter’s lap, not breaking the kiss, then slid his cold hands under Walter’s shirt, running them up his back.
Walter gasped at the cold touch and Henry took the opportunity to bite Walter’s lower lip and lick into his mouth. He groaned softly, moving his hands to tangle in Henry’s hair, tugging on the ginger curls. Henry curled his entire body over Walter’s from his height advantage of being perched on Walter’s lap, but given that they were both drunk, they quickly toppled backward and onto the ground. Their teeth clanked together uncomfortably but they were both giggling uncontrollably. Henry nuzzled his face into the crook of Walter’s neck and Walter wrapped his arms around Henry’s waist. Walter sighed happily, reveling in the closeness and the calm of the dark. And then Henry started kissing his neck and Walter nearly stopped breathing.
Walter could write off making out with your best friend when you’re drunk, even if you’re two guys. What he didn’t think he could write off was getting a boner while your best friend gives you a hickey. Walter was frantically singing the Hillis song in his head until Henry started giggling and sat up in Walter’s lap and he realized he was singing it out loud.
“What’re you doing?” Henry asked, still giggling. He placed both hands on Walter’s chest to support himself as he swayed slightly.
“What’re
you
doing?” Walter countered before his drunk brain answered honestly.
“I asked you first.” Henry said through his continuing giggles right before he started hiccupping, taking him so by surprise that he tumbled off Walter’s lap and rolled onto his stomach in the cool grass. He kept hiccupping as he lay face down while Walter laughed at him. Once Henry finally stopped laughing, Walter laid down on his back next to Henry, resting a hand on the small of his back.
“We should go to bed. Graduation’s early in the morning.” Walter reasoned but Henry whined and shook his head.
“Not moving.” Henry said through a yawn.
“I’m not leaving you alone outside, Hen.” Walter rolled his eyes, yawning immediately after Henry. Henry made a soft, sleepy noise and rolled over until his face was smushed into Walter’s armpit.
“Then stay with me.” he mumbled, turning his head to give Walter’s bicep an affectionate bite, then settled his head down on Walter’s arm. Walter sighed heavily, not exactly wanting to spend the night outside, on the ground, while drunk, but he couldn’t bring himself to move away from Henry who seemed perfectly content to use him as a pillow.
“Alright.” Walter mumbled, wrapping his arm around Henry’s shoulders and snuggling close to him to keep them warm.
Henry fell asleep in moments, his snoring muffled against Walter’s arm, while Walter lay awake for a while just staring at Henry and running his fingers through his hair, struggling to believe that this night was real life.
~~~~~
When Walter woke up the next morning, the first thing he registered was the crick in his neck from sleeping half-sitting up against a tree. The next thing he realized was that his arm was draped over Henry’s back, who was passed out on his stomach in the grass and cradling his bottle of vodka. Walter smiled softly and scrubbed his hands over his face, the slightest headache pulsing at his temples. He pushed himself to sit up, leaning against the tree, and yawned. He pulled out his phone to check the time and he barely glanced at the clock saying it was 8:04 am before the screen went dark as his phone ran out of battery. He sighed heavily, knowing they had to get up to make it to graduation at 9:00 am. He reached over to shake Henry’s shoulder to rouse him. He laughed softly when Henry let out a soft whine and moved to swat Walter’s hand away.
“It’s after 8:00 am. Get up. Graduation’s at 9:00 am.” Walter told him, continuing to shake him. Henry groaned again but finally opened his eyes and rolled onto his back before hissing dramatically and throwing his hands over his eyes.
“It burns.” Henry grumbled, wincing when Walter laughed.
“Come on. We have to get dressed.” Walter said, standing up while leaning heavily on the tree trunk.
“Help me up.” Henry whined, lifting his arms in the air dramatically. Walter groaned, rolling his eyes. He leaned down, sliding his hands under Henry’s armpits, and lifted him up. Henry stumbled backward into Walter’s chest, in a daze, and dropped his head back onto Walter’s shoulder. “You’re soft.” Henry murmured, nuzzling his head back into Walter’s shoulder.
“You still sound drunk.” Walter teased softly, sliding his hands down Henry’s body to gently squeeze his hips before he remembered they weren’t both drunk and couldn’t write off his affection as a result of alcohol anymore. He quickly moved his hands back to Henry’s shoulders and started gently pushing him in the direction of Forest Ridge house.
They stumbled into their room and quickly started getting dressed since they had to get to graduation a few minutes before it started.
Walter was in such a rush, that he barely paid attention to Henry as he stripped down in front of Walter, or to the way Henry’s eyes lingered on Walter. Until…
“Uh oh.” Henry’s soft voice mumbled. Walter’s head shot up, meeting Henry’s wide eyes.
“What?” he asked, looking around frantically to spot the problem.
“I, um…” Henry started, then trailed off as a scarlet blush started spreading across his cheeks and down his neck. Walter had to stop himself from following it as it continued to chart a course down Henry’s bare chest.
“What’s wrong?” Walter asked, tilting his head to the side inquisitively and taking a small step closer to Henry.
“I gave you a hickey.” Henry mumbled, not meeting Walter’s eyes.
Walter shook his head like a dog, feeling like he’d been factory reset. There was no way that just came out of Henry’s mouth; right?
“I - you…
what?”
he asked, utterly confused. And that was when Henry took another step closer to him and placed his fingers on the apparent bruise on the side of his neck. When he did, Walter could feel the evidence of it on his skin even though he hadn’t seen it yet. The press of Henry’s fingers against his still-tender skin had just the right amount of pleasure-pain that it nearly sent Walter’s knees buckling.
“I’m sorry.” Henry mumbled, still looking bashful but there was something else mixed into his expression that Walter couldn’t quite place.
“You… you remember that?” Walter asked belatedly. Obviously, Henry remembered kissing him the night before if he remembered giving Walter a hickey. However, Walter had been hanging onto the assumption that Henry was too drunk to remember
anything
that happened the night before. His luck had, apparently, run out.
“Of course, I do.” Henry mumbled, now looking at Walter with a slightly puzzled expression. “Did you not want me to?” he whispered. Walter faltered for a moment and Henry took that as his cue to take a step back out of Walter’s space.
“I… wouldn’t say that
exactly.”
Walter said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck. He had no idea how to put into words that he didn’t necessarily want Henry to forget that he’d kissed Walter because he was still desperately hoping that if Henry was willing to kiss him when he was drunk, maybe someday he’d want to kiss him when he was sober. He mostly wanted Henry to forget how willingly Walter kissed him back in case kissing Walter sober was never something he wanted to do.
Henry studied Walter for a moment before a flash of
something
crossed his eyes and he took another step back towards his bed and started getting dressed for graduation again.
“You regret it.” he mumbled; not as a question. Again, Walter shook his head, taken aback.
“I’m so confused.” Walter admitted after a moment, finally giving up.
“I just! Fuck, I don’t know! With the school closing, I couldn’t
not
do that. In case we didn’t get to see each other again. I know I shouldn’t have. I know I should’ve asked. I know I shouldn’t have been drunk. I was just so scared and
I thought
maybe it was something you’d want, too. Sometimes I wondered, but I was never sure but I just
did it.
We don’t have to talk about it anymore. I get it. You don’t feel the same way. It’s fine. Let’s just leave it alone.” Henry rambled as he angrily buttoned his shirt and pulled his blazer over it, his back pointedly to Walter the whole time.
Walter stood stock still, his fingers gripping tightly to the buttons of his white shirt, his ears ringing as he took in what Henry said. He’d been attempting to button his shirt when Henry started rambling, but he’d quickly lost control over his limbs the longer Henry talked.
“So, you…
wanted
to kiss me. Not, like,
just because
you were drunk?” Walter asked, feeling the need to clarify because it felt like he was trying to think while his brain was only working on half its normal oxygen capacity.
“Look, I get it. You don’t like me back. You don’t have to rub it in.” Henry grumbled, stiffly pulling at his blazer to get it in place before trying to breeze past Walter.
Luckily, he managed to regain control of his limbs the moment Henry tried to push past him to walk out the door. Walter grabbed him by the elbow and spun him around so Henry was finally facing him. There weren’t tears in his eyes, but Walter could clearly see the sadness in them. And that needed to be fixed right the hell now.
“You beautiful idiot.” Walter mumbled right before he crashed their lips together. Henry froze against him momentarily, but his brain and his body finally seemed to catch up and he quickly kissed Walter back. They both had morning breath and Henry still faintly tasted like vodka, but it was the best moment of Walter’s life.
They finally broke apart when they jumped at the sound of someone starting to bang on every door in the hall, announcing that they had twenty minutes to get to graduation.
“We’re talking about this later, right?” Walter asked softly, his forehead still pressed against Henry’s.
“Definitely.” he whispered, then giggled softly, wrapping his arms around Walter’s waist. “We still need to find a way to cover this up.” he mumbled, still grinning, as he trailed one hand up to brush a finger against the side of Walter’s neck. Walter finally moved to the side to inspect the damage in their mirror, finding a red and purple bruise in almost the perfect shape of Henry’s mouth on the side of his neck, about an inch from the hollow of his throat.
“Maybe one of the girls can help.” Walter suggested, glancing at Henry, who still looked a little sheepish.
“I’ll run them down. Finish getting dressed.” Henry instructed, giving Walter’s hand a squeeze before quickly running out of the room.
Walter quickly finished getting dressed, brushed his teeth, and was in the middle of trying to tame his hair when he heard voices in the hall moments before Henry burst through the door with Fredrika and Stella in tow. Who were holding hands. Walter glanced at Henry, minutely confused, who grinned widely back at him before glancing down at their intertwined hands, then back to Walter again.
“Makes sense.” Walter mumbled, suddenly understanding and grinning at them.
“Shut up. Show me the damage.” Stella said, waving them off even though she and Fredrika were both blushing scarlet.
Now it was Walter’s turn to blush, but he lifted his head and let the girls examine the bruise.
“How’d this happen?” Fredrika asked carefully, looking like she didn’t want to automatically assume it was a hickey even though it was incredibly obvious. Stella and Henry both shot her a raised eyebrow and she raised her hands defensively.
“Um… alcohol?” Walter mumbled, his face turning even redder as everyone started to giggle.
“And your little vampire isn’t helping you with this…because?” Fredrika started, ignoring or oblivious to the pointed looks she was getting from both Henry and Stella. “Surely she has makeup.” she continued until Stella literally face-palmed.
“Freddie.” Stella deadpanned, quickly glancing between Walter and Henry until they all saw the realization in Fredrika’s eyes.
“Oh!”
she exclaimed, clapping her hands over her mouth and looking embarrassed.
“It’s okay, we didn’t know either.” Walter admitted, only to receive even more confused looks from Stella and Fredrika. Henry just waved them off with a look that promised to tell them later.
The girls rummaged through their makeup bags to find enough combinations of things that could cover up the bruise on Walter’s neck while Henry finished getting dressed, brushed his teeth, and tamed his curls. He finished while the girls were still working on Walter, so Henry took it upon himself to grab Walter’s hair gel and plant himself behind Walter on the bed so he could finish fixing Walter’s hair. He’d seen him do it every day for a year; he was confident he could do an adequate job. Henry couldn’t see Walter’s face from his position, but he could assume that Walter was blushing by the way the girls almost immediately started giggling. It didn’t help that, once Henry was done, he batted Stella’s hands away so he could tug Walter’s head back and press a soft kiss to his lips.
“Gross.” Stella teased, but she was rolling her eyes fondly.
“Now you know how I felt when I walked in on you two.” Henry replied easily, flopping down on his own bed.
“You did
what?”
Walter asked, his head whipping over in Henry’s direction.
“We weren’t
doing anything!”
Fredrika groaned, but now they were both blushing.
“Not what it looked like to me.” Henry teased, shooting Walter a bright grin.
“I’ll tell you later."
he mouthed to Walter, who smiled and nodded.
It took a few more minutes for Stella to deem Walter fit to go into public, and it couldn’t come a moment too soon since graduation was supposed to start in exactly six minutes. Luckily, they were all dressed and finally ready to go, so they sprinted together and quickly took their seats with mere minutes to spare.
The ceremony was nothing special, in the opinion of those not graduating, but Walter and Henry kept finding it difficult not to grab onto each other’s hands. Stella and Fredrika gave up relatively early on. Once Stella started crying, it was game over and Fredrika quickly grabbed her hand to help console her. But when it was announced that the decision to close Hillerska was going to be appealed, Henry couldn’t help but glance down to find Walter’s hand, tangling their fingers together and squeezing his hand. Walter quickly glanced at Henry with a momentary look of surprise and Henry started to let go of his hand, but Walter tightened his grip and held on, moving their intertwined hands to rest in his lap. Then, when the choir started singing Simon’s version of the Hillis song, Henry couldn’t suppress his wide smile. He glanced at Walter and shot him a knowing grin, then looked up at Simon, who had a proud expression on his face. While most of the people in the room looked confused, including Stella and Fredrika next to them, there were a few people who were gazing fondly at Simon just as Henry and Walter were. They’d realized over that last year that even though they came from different backgrounds, he was a good guy and if the literal Crown Prince of Sweden liked him, he couldn’t be that bad. They’d both talked about how glad they were that they’d opened their mind about him because they could now call the pair of them friends. That, at least, made Henry and Walter hopeful about the years to come if Hillerska was allowed to stay open.
~~~
Once graduation was over, everyone knew their parents would be waiting outside for them. Walter knew his parents and sister would be waiting for him, so he practically ran down the stairs, dragging Henry along behind him who had been clinging to his arm. He felt the loss of contact somewhere on the stairs as he felt Henry’s hand trail off his shoulder, but he knew he’d find him again.
Walter’s sister found him before he found them. There were arms wrapped around him before he managed to spot his sister, but he knew the familiar smell of her perfume.
“One year down. How was it?” Frida asked once Walter turned to hug her.
“It was great.” Walter beamed, finally laying eyes on his parents as well. He hugged both of them and they told him how proud they were of him. While he was talking to his parents, Frida started looking around the crowd to find any familiar faces. That was when a head of ginger hair caught her eye from a few feet away.
“Is that Henry?” she asked, nudging Walter's side. He followed her gaze to find Henry already looking at him and grinned.
“Yeah.” he replied, a little dreamily.
“Oh god, you’ve got it bad.” she rolled her eyes and then quickly straightened up when Henry started making his way over to them, his own parents in tow.
“Be cool!”
she hissed, gently whacking Walter on the arm and quickly making him remember how little chill she’s had for her whole life.
“I’ve lived with him for a year.
You
be cool!” he spit back right before Henry knocked his shoulder into Walter’s.
“My parents wanted to meet you. They said I’d talked about you too much to not meet you.” Henry stated bluntly, making Walter grin and all of the adults chuckle. “Mom, Dad, this is Walter. Walter this is my mom, Annika, and my dad, Iver.” Henry introduced them, and they both shook Walter’s hand.
“It’s nice to finally meet you. These are my parents, Fredrik and Wilma, and my sister, Frida.” Walter introduced them all. They each shook Henry’s hand first before the families shook each other’s hands.
They all got to know each other for a bit, but Walter was overly aware of Frida studying him as he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Henry. Walter also couldn’t suppress his smile at how obviously Henry was trying to win over Walter’s parents. He was definitely on his best behavior as he tried to charm them. Walter and Henry’s parents exchanged amused looks when they realized what was going on.
“Sorry to interrupt. Can I borrow him for a minute?” Frida asked after several minutes, grabbing Walter by the elbow and already starting to tug him away to talk privately. The adults seemed to wave them away while Henry watched with his head cocked to the side. Walter waved him off as well and trailed along behind Frida.
Once they were alone, Frida turned to him and leveled him with a knowing stare.
“Spill.” she instructed, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What?” he asked, clearly confused.
“Walter, I’ve seen every trick in the book. Our parents might not notice, but I can see it clear as day. You can’t
completely
cover up a hickey with only foundation. Spill.” she said, immediately making Walter turn bright red.
“Fuck, why is this something you need to know
right now?”
he groaned, self-consciously moving his hand up to cover where he knew the hickey was.
“You’re my little brother. It’s my right to be nosey. Who did it?” she asked, sounding a little judgemental before she studied the expression on Walter’s face a little more carefully. “Oh my fuck, no he did not!” she practically squealed, her eyes widening.
“Shut up!”
he hissed when her exclamation drew the attention of their parents, who still weren’t more than ten feet away. “We were drunk. He kissed me. We haven’t
really
talked about it yet.” he told her, not meeting her eyes as she giggled giddily.
“Is he going to be your boyfriend?” she asked, clearly immediately invested.
“I don’t know. I hope so. Leave me alone. Don’t ask me before I can ask him. Or he can ask me. It’s been a day, alright?” he said firmly, finally getting her to hold up her hands in surrender.
“You know I’m happy for you, right?” she asked, grinning and throwing her arm around his shoulders when he nodded.
The pair walked back to the group and Frida sidled right up next to Henry so she was between the two boys and threw her other arm around his shoulders as well. Walter pinched her arm when she leaned over to whisper something in Henry’s ear, but she just batted his hand away. It didn’t seem to matter. Whatever she’d said had already made Henry blush so furiously his face matched his hair.
~~~
After the families had time to visit with their kids, some students had left on trips, some had gone home with their parents, and the rest went back to their rooms to finish packing since they had to be out for good by the next day. That included Henry and Walter who hadn’t bothered to pack their room yet, and now were incredibly glad they hadn’t.
Once they were back inside their room and away from prying eyes, they both peeled their blazers off and collapsed onto Henry’s bed.
“What do we do now?” Henry asked softly after a few moments of silence.
“Whatever we want.” Walter mumbled, turning his head so he was just a breath away from Henry. Henry smiled so wide his eyes squeezed shut and Walter took that as his opportunity to brush a kiss against his cheek. “You really didn’t know?” Walter asked softly, barely audible but they were pressed so close together Henry could hear. He shook his head then leaned back to gaze dreamily at Walter.
“I had no idea.” he whispered, tilting his chin up so he could ghost a kiss against Walter’s lips.
“Three separate people told me I was obvious. I thought you knew but didn’t feel the same way so you didn’t bring it up. I thought last night was because of the alcohol and I just happened to be the one there.” Walter admitted, not meeting Henry’s eye as he finished speaking. Henry, though, moved his hand to gently cup Walter’s cheek, stroking his thumb underneath his eye.
“I didn’t exactly think I was subtle either. Guess we’re pretty stupid.” Henry ribbed, rolling his eyes.
“So… now what?” Walter parrotted Henry’s words from earlier. Henry grinned, leaning back and taking both of Walter’s hands in his.
“Be my boyfriend?” he asked hopefully, the tiniest flicker of anxiety in his eyes. Walter didn’t say anything; he just beamed and tackled Henry back onto the bed, wrapping him in a hug. “Is that a yes?” Henry asked through giggles as he wrapped his arms around Walter.
“In every language I know.” Walter mumbled against Henry’s cheek, sending a shiver down Henry’s spine before Walter crashed their lips together.
They kissed until their lips were numb even after nearly tumbling off the bed several times. Finally, they realized they really did have to pack so they got undressed into their pajamas and started packing up their room. Neither of them had a ton of possessions or decorations lying around. They were both fairly minimalistic. Henry did have to get Walter to sit on his suitcase because it wouldn’t close with all of the clothes he’d haphazardly folded.
Finally, when all that was left were the sheets, blankets, and toothbrushes they’d need the next morning, they collapsed on their respective beds, breathing a sigh of relief. That didn’t last long, though, before Henry was crawling into bed with Walter.
“Do your parents know… about you? Will this be a big deal?” Walter asked after a few moments of silence where he’d been trailing his fingertips down Henry’s back.
“They don’t know yet, but I don’t think it’ll be a big deal. One of my cousins just got married to another man and they didn’t bat an eye even behind closed doors. I’ll tell them soon. If that’s okay with you.” Henry said, sighing happily when Walter gave him a gentle squeeze.
“My parents know. I think they’ve known since I was little but I told them about a year ago. I’ll tell them about us. They’ll be happy.” Walter promised, resuming his ministrations when he felt Henry’s smile against his neck; which reminded him of something from earlier. “By the way, what did my sister say to you earlier?” Walter asked, his stomach swooping when Henry let out a snort.
“Are you sure you want to know?” Henry asked, glancing up at Walter and raising his eyebrows.
“Oh god.”
Walter groaned, throwing an arm over his eyes. “Out with it.” he grumbled while Henry kept giggling.
“She said the next time I wanted to give you a hickey, maybe give you one where it wasn’t so obvious.”
…son of a bitch.