Initially this was going to be a blurb. Then I got hooked on writing out the story and suddenly wanted to pull in a third party and the dialogue started doing whatever it wanted so uhm
Long story short I'm starting to remember why writing is so fun
“W-wait, Leon, c’mon, y-you’re not really mad, right?” Ethan stammered out, backing away from his admittedly much scarier boyfriend. He’d had the idea of spooking Leon with a quick tase to his sides, but had unfortunately forgotten to account for the cup of soda in his hands.
The soda that was now all over the front of Leon’s shirt.
“You made me make a mess of myself! And now…” Leon took a second to think, before a smirk crossed his face as he thought of a punishment that’s proven to work at least for a while at their house.
“Now I’m gonna turn you into a mess!”
Suddenly Ethan was on his back, squealing as Leon’s fingers dug into his sides, sending sparks of ticklish energy shooting through his body. Of course this was what he resorted to. Ethan should have known this was coming for a long time. In fact, he sort of got the feeling that Leon wasn’t just tickling him over the soda.
Or at least, he did until his brain was flooded with ‘ITTICKLESITTICKLESNOBADBUTYESGOOD??’ as Leon’s fingers climbed his ribs, his touch becoming lighter and lighter the higher he went, planning each move carefully, slowly turning Ethan’s brain to mush with a smirk.
“Leheheon plehehehease! Ihi’m sohohohorry!” he managed between laughs, squeaking and almost folding as he suddenly received a poke to his belly, which turned into Leon scribbling all over it, leaving his ribs tingling and the anticipation of Leon going after his worse spot left unchecked.
“Aww, you didn’t think I was gonna kill ya that fast did you? I said I was going to turn you into a mess, and I know how easily anticipation does that for you. You need your tickles to be quick and easy for you to keep any sort of brain function. And that usually leads to revenge. But if I’m gonna turn you into a mess the right way, I’m gonna need your brain to basically melt.”
“H-hohow do youhu knohohow ahall thihihis?!” Ethan questioned as Leon’s fingers began to drift to his sides again.
“Dude, please, we’ve been friends since high school. You think I wouldn’t have picked up on all this by now?” Leon answered, still smirking as though he felt like the smartest man in the world for figuring out what kind of tickles made his boyfriend tick. “But, do you wanna know something else?”
“Whahahahat?”
“A little birdie told me tickle games get to you really bad~”
I’m going to fucking kill Liv, Ethan thought, his giggles calming as Leon retracted his hands and began to think.
“What game should we play, Ethan? The claw game? Maybe we could play rib piano? Or arms up? I know how much you love that one~” Leon listed the games off, watching Ethan’s face get redder and redder as he mentioned each game. Still, Ethan could never resist the urge to be a little shit.
“Aha… ahas much as you love tummy raspberries?”
Apparently that was the wrong thing to say as he saw a blush cross Leon’s face before he narrowed his eyes and simply said “Arms up.”
“Ahaw shit…” Ethan mumbled as he slowly raised his arms, knowing he was in for it now. He squeaked softly as he felt Leon’s gentle fingers slowly touch down and begin to trace gentle patterns along his wrists, moving at an agonizingly slow pace down his forearms. Ethan fought a losing battle against a wobbly smile spreading like his own blush across his face, gripping onto a table leg that was just above him, causing it to scoot forward with a small, sudden scraping noise.
“Aww, what’s wrong? Can’t get through without something to help?” Leon cooed as he traced little swirls around Ethan’s inner elbows, watching in amusement as the goth struggled to hold back his giggles. “C’mon, Ethan, no cheating.~”
“Pff- i-it’s nohot- snrk- not cheating!” he squeaked out in response.
“Not not cheating? Wouldn’t that mean it is cheating? I dunno, double negatives are stupid… either way, it sounds to me like you are cheating! And you know what happens to cheaters, don’t you?~” he warned, his gentle fingers slowly traveling down Ethan’s arms and towards his underarms.
“N-nohoho, nonono, L-Leheon, wait!” he squeaked out before yelping as Leon suddenly moved to his sides, just above where his belt held his shirt tightly to his waist.
“God, dude, why do you wear these things so high? I can’t get to your hips like this!”
“Doho NOHOT tahake my behelts ohohoff!” Ethan warned with a light shove.
“I’m not, I’m not, but that can’t be comfortable, I’m just saying. They’re covering half of your sides! I might just have to tickle you again after you change out of this, just so I can do what I really wanted!”
“Gohod you’re soho mehehean!”
“Oh I’M mean? Mister Tickles Everyone Every Chance He Gets is calling ME mean? You could just admit you can’t handle the teasing, you don’t have to make shit up just to look big.”
“Nohow lohohook whoho’s beheing a hypohocrihihite!”
Leon didn’t say anything, but the look in his eyes told Ethan he’d sassed him for the last time. Before he knew it, there was suddenly an unbearably gentle tracing just between his ribs and underarms, making his arms snap down in response as an embarrassingly high squeal ripped from his throat, his giggles skipping straight to hysterics, filled with squeals and shrieks every couple of seconds as Leon went a little too fast for his brain to keep up with properly.
“Ohp, looks like you lost, guess I’ll just have to keep tickling here~” Leon purred, holding back an amused laugh as Ethan struggled to string sounds into words and words into sentences, knowing his brain was filled with nothing but fireworks of energy, listening to his boots stomping loudly onto the floor behind him. Something he failed to notice, much to Ethan’s embarrassment, was the sound of a door shutting behind him.
“What the hell is all the noise…?” he heard a tired voice, Liv’s, behind him and turned to look at her, not slowing his tickles in the slightest.
“I’m tickling Ethan to death,” he answered simply.
“Ah… What happened to your shirt?”
“This little fucker happened. Why did you think I was tickling him?”
“Because he makes you look like a big puppy almost daily?”
“... Listen, don’t make me come after you next!” he warned with a blush, prompting Liv to raise her hands in surrender.
“Ohokay, okay, whatever you say, big man.” She came over to the two and knelt down beside Ethan. “God, him being such a big, scary tickler all the time can make ya forget how cute of a lee he is. I mean, look at him, his face matches his shirt at this point! What have you been doing to the poor guy, Leon?”
“KIHIHIHILLING MEHEHEHEHE!!” Ethan somehow managed through his laughter, squealing as Leon softly drummed over his tiny death spot the best he could beneath his arms.
“Teaching him a lesson about being a brat and a hypocrite. Can you believe he had the audacity to call me mean AND try to tease his way out of this? He caused this himself,” Leon corrected. “Anyway, I think now he’s just mad he lost the Arms Up game so I’m just gonna keep doing this until he apologizes.”
“Ah, so that’s what woke me up…”
“Why were you asleep at 3:30 in the afternoon, ya weirdo?”
“Oh, fuck off, it’s not my fault Streber’s tummy is comfortable. I wanted to hang out, eventually we ended up snuggling, my head was on his tummy, and you know how fucken soft he is so you also probably know what came next.”
“Ah, yeah, I get it. Did he do that thing, too, where he like, messes with your hair?”
“He did, it was so nice! He said it helps him focus but I honestly just think he knows we like it at this point. Does he ever do that to you, Ethan?” She turned to the goth, who was still pinned under (and getting the absolute shit tickled out of him by) his boyfriend, who only responded by shakily flipping her off, still finding speaking difficult between his hysterics, prompting a quiet laugh from the redhead.
“You gonna let him up anytime soon? I think he’s dying,” she asked Leon, who rolled his eyes but let up anyway, stretching his arms as Ethan slowly calmed down.
“Yeahhh, I think he’s enough of a mess. Got anything smart to say now, Eth?”
“Aheheh… awashb… yuhu… grrehehe…” he mumbled out, not making one bit of sense to himself, much less either of them.
“Oho god you got him speaking a whole other language,” Liv giggled at Ethan’s state.
“Is that even a language? I don’t even understand what he’s trying to say!” Leon pointed out, scooping up the giggly goth in his arms.
“Gibberish is a language… sorta,” she tried to argue. “It’s sorta communication.”
Leon rolled his eyes as he chuckled softly.
“Well last time I checked, Ethan’s first language was English-”
“I thought it was Spanish?”
“No, no, he’s just really fluent in Spanish, that doesn’t make it his first language.”
“Ohhh, I always thought he spoke it so well because it was his first. I could never, honestly.”
“Yeah, I know, right? It’s actually really fucken impressive. Anyway, since English is his first language and he can’t even speak that properly, I think my work is almost done here.”
“Almost?”
“You think I’m just gonna tickle my boyfriend and not cuddle with him afterwards? Do I look like a monster to you?”
“Depends on the kinda monster. Tickle monster? Yeah, very much so, actually.”
“Pft- ok, fair. C’mon, the cuddle window is closing, and if he’s not in a fluff coma soon, he’s not gonna be the only one asked why he was being so loud. Wanna watch a movie?” he asked as he carried Ethan to the couch, followed closely by Liv, who nodded enthusiastically.
“Yeah yeah yeah! Let’s watch Pirates Of The Caribbean again!” she suggested, Leon rolling his eyes.
“You recommend that like, every time, why do I even ask anymore?” he teased, grabbing the remote and putting the movie on.
“The illusion of choice, my friend!”
Leon shook his head, chuckling quietly as he held Ethan close, the taller’s head resting on his shoulder, snuggled as close as he could be.In the few thoughts that were coherent in Ethan’s head, one of them was definitely, Worth it.
