young link is shy around girls and... just about anyone who he doesn’t consider a friend already. by contrast, even when they're pre-teens rhett's already showing signs of being girl-crazed, if only because he knows it's what he's supposed to do. so link tries to follow his example but he just doesn't get it.
and once they're older they never talk about what happened, but one day when they’re 11 and 12 link laments to rhett that he's never gonna get married, no one's ever gonna wanna marry him, which is ridiculous because he's far too young, he shouldn't be worrying about that kind of thing yet, but here he is. rhett looks at him sharply and then two things happen at once: firstly, just the thought of link marrying someone, of link having another person in his life that would eclipse rhett's presence in it and take link away from him, fills his gut with dread and all of a sudden he never wants to grow up if that's what's waiting for him. secondly, without thinking, because his twelve year old brain is far too occupied with trying to figure out how life would even work without link at his side, he says "i'd marry you" as if it's a given.
the sky is blue and rhett would happily volunteer to marry link.
link blinks at him while his face does something funny, like he's trying to figure out how to feel about what just happened, and for a second where his blood runs cold rhett's scared that link is gonna run to one of their parents and tell them what he said and he'll never be allowed to see link again (he's twelve, not stupid), but eventually link’s face settles on indignation as he blurts out, "i'm not a girl."
and while there's a part of him that knows he should change the subject, or at the very least drop this particular one, rhett doubles down with a simple "duh."
another round of blinking follows before link looks away from him and finally mutters, "guys can't get married, rhett."
rhett knows he's right but he also knows that the more he thinks about it, about being the one that gets to marry link when they're grown up, the more sense it makes, like that’s how it meant to play out. and, judging from the lack of link scrunching his face up and punching him, it maybe sounds like an okay idea to link too. so he shrugs and considers all the weird stuff they've gotten up to that they probably shouldn't have, and how they've kept so many things between just the two of them, and he nods to himself, telling link "we'll keep it a secret."
link does hit him then, tells him he's dumb, but the hit is a lot lighter than it could have been and link is doing a bad job of hiding the tiny smile on his face so he turns away completely as he mumbles that he wouldn't wanna keep that a secret anyway.
in a couple of months the topic hasn't come back up but they've both thought about individually, turned it over in their heads and had to bite the insides of their cheeks to keep themselves from smiling, but one day they're at the cape fear river and in the middle of seeing who can find and lift the heaviest rock to make the biggest splash in the water. link's just managed to top rhett's last throw, face red with exertion while he whoops and punches the air victoriously, but when he turns back, ready to rub rhett's face in it, rhett isn't looking.
rhett isn't even where he's supposed to be, somewhere nearby and behind link. he's way off, half hidden by trees with his head bent over something.
link stomps over to him, scowl in full force because "c'mon man, you never see when i do better than you!" but rhett disarms him completely when he suddenly whirls around with a big proud grin on his face and presents him with a ring carefully crafted (or as carefully crafted as possible for a 12 year old boy) out of a few wildflowers. gaping at it, all that comes to link’s mind is his original objection from when they first had this conversation: "i ain't a girl, rhett.”
rhett, disconcertingly, laughs, but he's tentative when he grabs link's hand to start to gingerly work the delicate ring onto link's finger, not looking up from his work while he tells him that "that would be weird, bo."
that floors link for a second before he comes back with "no, this is weird."
that gets rhett’s attention and he just looks at him for a moment before dropping his eyes back down to the makeshift ring. the enthusiastic expression starts to slip when he mutters that he can just take it back off, he doesn't have to be a jerk about it, but link quickly goes "no!" and snatches his hand back to cradle it against his chest before rhett's done with the last word as if he's afraid that rhett's gonna take it off himself. they're both quiet as link holds his hand up to examine the flower ring and finally shrugs, looking increasingly delighted but mumbling, “a flower ring is kinda weird”.
rhett huffs, swatting link on the shoulder. "can't afford a real one yet, but one day i'll get you one," he promises, half exasperated and half earnest.
link looks at his ring and shrugs again before spinning around to head back down to the water, calling back, "s'alright, i like this one. 'sides, maybe i'll get you one first!" rhett feels his stomach flip and his heart seems to work double time for a split second but he recovers soon enough and runs after link, determined to keep the other boy’s attention away from the reddening of his cheeks by telling him that he has no proof that he threw the bigger rock, even if that's completely irrelevant by now.
when link gets home later he thinks that maybe his mom might have caught a glimpse of the ring, so he keeps it as out of sight as he can until he can escape into his room and painstakingly ease it off his finger to keep it from getting damaged and put it in a place of honour next to his bed. by the next morning it has already started to wilt and he panics until he remembers how sometimes his mom will press flowers that she finds particularly pretty between the pages of the phone book, so he snatches up the heaviest book he has at 11 years of age and flips to the middle of it to carefully arrange the ring there. he plops his alarm clock down on top of the book for good measure, just so he can be extra sure it'll work.
they do forget about the entire thing eventually, though it’s less that they forget and more that they force themselves to not remember. rhett’s obsession with girls shows no signs of abating and link grits his teeth through it until all of a sudden girls start looking at him, and that makes listening to rhett’s endless rambling about them all the more bearable because now he has something to contribute (he’s not proud of the faint sense of smugness that sparks in the back of his mind when he sees rhett’s head snap towards him and the following jaw twitch out of the corner of his eye the first time link enthusiastically joins in his gushing, but a taste of his own medicine serves him right, really).
they push the foggy memory out of their minds for a few years until rhett finds himself rifling through link’s stuff out of sheer boredom. he’s been abandoned in link’s room, link having darted out at his mother’s call that there was a girl on the phone for him. he makes it about five minutes before he has to get up and starts to look around in search of something to occupy himself with. rhett smiles to himself when he comes to one shelf and catches sight of an old tape recorder and a stack of cassettes next to it. flipping through them reveals an eclectic selection: the majority are either store-bought or mixes they’ve made themselves, but at the bottom he finds a couple of tapes labelled with childishly blocky letters. setting those aside to show them to link when he returns, he grabs one of their mixes and spins to pop it into the tape deck, then returns to his browsing.
the spine of one book catches his eye and he stares at it, trying to figure out why it looks so familiar. it eventually dawns on him that he’s seen this book in different spots in link’s room for years. immediately curious about what would make link keep a book for so long when he’s never heard link talk about it, he swipes it off its shelf and starts flipping through it. something that is definitely not just words flashes by and rhett arches an eyebrow, scrabbling to find the page he’d flipped past.
he stops dead when he finds it and stares for an indeterminable amount of time. he stares and doesn’t hear link’s returning footsteps or whatever it is he’s saying until the other boy is in the room and abruptly stops talking when rhett turns to look at him, open book in one hand and the faded, pressed flower ring held delicately in the other.
has anyone watched kiss kiss bang bang? anyone know this scene in particular? ok so hear me out:
they take on a case, and it’s a step up from preteen infidelity. it’s an infidelity case with young adults, which somehow translates to seaborne and roach having to spend the evening at a drive-in movie theatre that has recently made a resurgence, a few cars over from the people they’re following. thankfully, they’re at the back, so they don’t have to worry about blocking anyone’s view and drawing attention to themselves like that.
however, the movie is some b-list sci-fi flick that isn’t... the greatest, but roach is eating it up and keeps spouting fun facts about the production of the movie because of course he knows about that. and seaborne is just tense the entire time because they’re supposed to be working but he keeps getting distracted and catches himself staring at roach in the dim light more than once, and between the drive-in, the snacks piled between them, and roach’s happy enthusiasm it feels too much like an actual date for seaborne to take. he maybe snaps a little and shoves their camera at roach and tells him to pay attention and take the pictures like he’s supposed to.
wordlessly, roach, the self-proclaimed incognito photographer that he is, steps out of the car when he sees that he can’t get a clear shot from his current vantage point. it should be easy to pass off, he’s tall, his legs cramp, and they’re not blocking anyone so it should be fine. except there are ushers, or something close to them, patrolling the area, making sure no one gets too carried away in the illusion of privacy, and roach very visibly has a camera and is very much not taking pictures of anything innocent. seaborne tries to get his attention from inside the car when he sees someone making their way up their row of cars but roach doesn’t seem to hear him. and the usher doesn’t seem to have noticed the camera yet, they’re getting too close for comfort so seaborne narrowly avoids diving out of his seat and rounds the car in a rush.
roach barely gets out a surprised and faintly indignant “hey-!” when seaborne snatches the camera out of his hand and tosses it back into the car before seaborne just reacts without thinking. they’re at a drive-in, right? so it won’t be completely out of place when he crowds roach against his side of the car, grabs him by the sides of the face, and hauls him down into a kiss. roach makes a quiet noise of surprise and doesn’t quite know where to put his hands but they settle on seaborne’s waist after a bit. the kiss lasts a bit too long for it to be casually waved away, but when they finally break for air they’re both bright red and they’re still clinging to each other and all roach can manage is “um...?” and seaborne immediately starts kicking himself when the first thing out of his mouth is “someone was coming and you were being really obvious.”
he can’t stand the instantaneous disappointment that flickers across roach’s face so he leans up to kiss him again in, lingering and apologetic. when he pulls away again, roach radiates confusion when he asks if somebody was coming again. seaborne’s eyes are locked somewhere around roach’s shirt collar when he shrugs deliberately casually and goes “nah. just felt like doing that.”
he looks up in time to catch roach’s face splitting into the biggest grin and finds himself mirroring it when roach’s arms tighten around him when he replies with “oh. okay.”
they become acutely aware of what is considered Acceptable for two boys when they're teens. on a level they'd always known they'd strayed beyond that invisible line almost immediately after declaring themselves best friends, but when they hit 14, 15, it's suddenly glaringly obvious. their parents had noticed over the years, of course they had, even just from the glimpses they caught of the two of them together before they were hurtling off into their next adventure, and while they had their misgivings, they wrote it off as childish affection, one boy latching onto the closest thing to a brother he will ever have, the other thrilling in finally not being The Little Brother.
but it's not brotherly affection that makes them lean against each other just to feel their arms press together. it's not what makes them nudge each other's knees under tables, too gentle to pass as boyish ribbing, and it doesn't explain the immediate sense of safety, fondness and affection that settles over them when skinny bodies and increasingly lanky limbs come together in tight hugs that last a few seconds too long where link has his face pressed into rhett's chest and rhett turns his head just enough to press his nose into dark hair, but they're young and don't think to put a name to it.
the wariness, the carefully kept buffer of space doesn't set in until cole walks in unexpectedly one day when they're watching tv at rhett's house after a tedious day of school. they were supposed to be alone, rhett's parents out for the afternoon and cole out with his friends. they were supposed to be doing homework, but had mutually agreed that they needed a break from educating themselves. that had been half an hour ago when there had been a decent amount of space between them, but they'd slowly inched their way closer during commercial breaks, getting up to stretch, to get something to drink, and settling back down closer than before each time.
they're pressed together from hip to knee and rhett's far arm is stretched somewhere across the back of the couch while his right arm lays on his leg, barely grazing link's left. link's focus on the show cracks when he feels something graze against his pinkie and his focus shatters completely when it happens again, only this time he realises: it's rhett's own pinkie, the movement is deliberate, and since he hadn't moved away rhett had gone ahead and intertwined the two digits. and when link turns to look at him he feels his heart thud heavily in his chest then pick up speed when grey-green eyes meet his own. for one breath-stopping moment he wants to lean further into rhett, to nudge his head into the space between rhett's chin and his chest, or perhaps to bravely brush his lips across the skin of rhett's cheek. it's when he's considering the small soft smile on rhett's face and beginning to entertain the idea of maybe seeing if it's as sweet as it looks, steadfastly ignoring the part of him that is warning that he's not supposed to do this with his best friend, his best friend who is a boy, that cole walks in.
they ricochet apart in a split second, two flurries of limbs that spring to opposite sides of the couch. he stares at them for an unnerving moment where they both fear what he'd seen, but after a beat he comes over and slumps between them, lamenting why he's back and not with his friends, but neither of them pay attention, not with the sound of blood rushing in their ears.
link comes to the conclusion that cole must have seen something and said so, because when he next sees rhett his friend looks far too tired for his young age, and when link gives him a tentative smile and timidly brushes their hands together, rhett avoids his eyes and hastily shoves both hands into his pockets.
link finds him in the relatively quiet room after everyone has nearly sung themselves hoarse, because of course he does. after thirty-five years of friendship he knows exactly where to find rhett when he slips away to take a few moments for himself after the drawn out excitement of the countdown, the cheering, the screaming.
the door is open to keep it from looking like he's hiding, and the other man leaves it that way, peeking his head in first then strolling over to lean back against the wall behind him. they stare at each other wordlessly for a minute, both sporting small smiles. stepping closer until they're toe to toe, rhett breaks the silence first.
"it's weird being here for the holidays and not back home."
"yep. it is," link agrees easily, tapping their toes together without glancing down.
they lapse back into silence for a bit, staring and studying each other's faces, cataloguing the tiny differences that the last year has wrought: a new wrinkle here, another grey hair there. they break out into renewed smiles at the same time and suddenly they can both see the boys they used to be standing in front of them.
it's when rhett thinks he can't feel any fonder of the man that link tugs him down by his new necklace and leans their foreheads together. a hand strokes through his beard and rhett leans into it, eyes fluttering shut.
"merry christmas, rhett," he hears that familiar, treasured voice tell him for the first time in what feels like forever, on the correct day while its owner is within reach.
rhett's hands come up to graze along link's waist and settle at his hips as he brushes their noses together, lips quirking upward as his heart threatens to burst out of his too-full chest.
