Sweet Cleansing
Prompt: PDA Words: 1880 My only entry for this @spdrabblebomb… It’s very late since I was feeling pretty unwell this week, but I still wanted to do just a little something ;v;
An absent-minded person Kyle usually was not, but he was certainly finding himself drifting in and out of some kind of daze. He supposed it was possibly the weather, since earlier it snowed and often that left most people a bit lethargic if not scattered. Either way, Kyle couldn’t complain since fresh snow had a sort of romantic affect on things, and he was quite partial to that idea, though he wasn’t going to admit it. Definitely not today.
When Kenny opened his passenger door, Kyle went to nudge the volume on the radio down a few notches to greet him. “Hey,” he chirped, watching the other climb in and buckle up. “You still want to go see the same movie we agreed on, right?”
“Uh huh,” Kenny sounded.
Nodding, Kyle pulled off from the McCormick’s house easily. With the roads mostly cleared, the ride over to the movie theater would be relatively calm. It wasn’t very far before Kyle felt a prickling sensation on his neck, though, that sense of eyes on him weighing on the moment of silence. Glancing over, Kyle caught Kenny staring, his mouth mostly covered by the collar of his zipped parka.
His hand shifting and re-gripping the steering wheel, Kyle goes out on a limb. “What?” he asks.
“Nothin’,” Kenny answered in a peculiar way, as if knowing something that made his response sound just slightly too teasingly sweet, but he only sat back quietly in his seat for the rest of the trip.
They sauntered in from the cold and into the warm theater, stopping in front of the concessions after receiving their tickets to decide on what to get for a snack. Kyle griped about the overpriced popcorn before looking to Kenny. “Well, what do you want to do?”
“I could split the pay on one?”
“No, no, that’s okay. I want to pay,” Kyle insists. “How about we forget popcorn anyways and just grab some candy and drinks?”
Kenny leaned in a little closer. “So, you’re up for something sweet instead of salty today?”
Pursing his lips at the other, Kyle favors stepping forward in line instead of giving an answer. Without even seeing it, he knew Kenny was smiling at him.
They found their seats toward the back of the room, the prime spot to be for avoiding any distractions. The red chairs squeaked when they sat down, and soon the movie came on, booming over the speakers and pushing them into that nostalgic sense of anticipation. Kenny liked anything with some action in it, and Kyle found himself becoming interested too, making sure not to talk much as the plot of the film really started getting underway.
Kyle was curious if Kenny was also getting into it. He glanced over, only to see that Kenny was already avidly gazing at him as though he were the screen instead, his eyes seeming almost glassy in the glow of the movie.
“What?” Kyle asked again, this time more intently.
“Nothing,” Kenny answered, softly giggling afterward at what Kyle could only imagine was the incredulous look he wore on his face.
Dusk had fallen by the time they emerged from the theater, streetlights clicking on all across town. They zippered their jackets back up to brace the colder temperatures, heading back to the modest vehicle that was Kyle’s mother’s car. Kyle felt that the colder air was refreshing, though, noticing that small snow crystals sometimes swept up with the occasional gust of wind, that Kenny’s eyes crinkled when the sparkling particles tried to cling to his lashes. The contour of Kenny’s profile was flattering when Kyle caught that moment, and Kyle had to subtly look away. He didn’t want to let on that he was observing so closely.
“So…” Kyle spoke up into the night air. Though he felt it was putting him in the position of some type of self-fulfilling prophecy, he didn’t quite want their time together to end yet. “You want to walk around for awhile or something, dude? Go look at the shops?”
“Oh, really spoilin’ me this time, huh?” Kenny coos quietly, peering over his shoulder at him, but his tone shines with a genuine interest as he goes on. “Yeah, dude. We can go look around.”
They head toward a nearby shopping district, where people were walking around a kind of strip mall of small shops and restaurants. Kyle parks in the parking lot near a café, appreciating how Kenny’s silence gave him a second to think.
Once out of the car, they walk aimlessly together past the few storefronts that were lit, salt and snow crunching under their shoes. The loose shoelaces of Kenny’s boots tapped as they bounced off the leather, and his keys gently jingled from within the confines of his pockets like always. Kyle studied Kenny’s passing reflection in the windows, feeling as though it was fitting the way his slim body flowed between the panels. Things felt so easy with Kenny. Maybe too easy.
Kyle snapped out of his thoughts as he felt some kind of small object pelt him lightly in the back, turning to realize Kenny had thrown a tiny snowball at him. He stops to snicker at his companion, watching Kenny kick around in some snow looking for another chunk worth throwing. “Hey. If you want to start a fight you’re picking a bad place to do it.”
Kenny’s nose scrunches up in mirth, stepping into the foot of smooth snow that had remained untouched thanks to being at the end of the road, away from traffic. “Dude, we used to go apeshit over so much snow like this,” he recalls.
As if it were just calling to him to be laid in, Kenny flops back into the snow, sinking into the surface.
“Oh god,” Kyle laughs as Kenny moves his arms to create a quick, makeshift snow angel. It seemed fun, he could give it that at least. “Kenny, you’re going to get wet…”
When Kenny stood, the imprint he left behind was so large in hindsight of what they’d create as kids, it only made it more amusing.
“Well now he’s going to be lonely, dude,” Kyle points out. Knowing they couldn’t have that, he quickly lies back in the snow himself, pushing it out and away with his arm span and legs. Grunting, he pulls himself up, brushing off his jacket as they check out his work.
“Call me sacrilegious, but that’s one hot angel,” Kenny chimes in cheekily.
“You would know,” Kyle mutters.
“What?”
“Nothing. Let’s head back and keep going…” Kyle crosses his arms tightly as the cold begins to seep into him, especially now that they took a detour of playing in the snow. “It’s getting pretty chilly, anyway. Maybe we can grab a coffee from that café?”
“Yeah, I’m down for it,” Kenny assures.
With the sky now dark, the café was blindingly bright for a moment when Kyle pulled open the door. Inside, Kyle ordered himself a latte and a hot chocolate with whipped cream for Kenny. Under the warm yellow colors of the café’s lights, they stood by the window to nurse their piping hot drinks, Kyle feeling that daze dissipating somewhat again.
“Is yours sweet?” Kenny asks, curiously looking down at the frothy foam of Kyle’s uncovered drink.
“I guess you can say that. I get them flavored,” Kyle responds thoughtfully.
Thankfully he was holding the cup up carefully, because Kenny stepped closer and leaned in for a taste. Kyle stood still, awkwardly glancing around at the other distracted patrons of the store before watching Kenny’s lips slowly latch onto the brim of the cup, the liquid rippling against his lip as he took a cautious, small sip.
“It’s not bad.” Kenny admits when he straightens back up. Then he holds out his hot chocolate, offering the much sweeter option to Kyle. “Wanna try mine too?”
“That’s alright –”
“Here.” Kenny brings his warm beverage up to Kyle’s mouth anyways.
If only to make Kenny happy with the gesture, Kyle can’t help but to take a small drink, even though being unprepared left him a bit clumsy in doing so. The mound of whipped cream ends up smudging against his cupid’s bow, of course, despite how hasty he tried to be. Kenny’s hand naturally starts to come up to remedy it, but Kyle goes to swiftly wipe it away with the back of his hand first.
“It’s definitely sweeter…” Kyle shuffles on his feet, having a hard time bringing his gaze back up from his cup with Kenny standing a mere inch away and all. Kenny was making this harder, there was no doubt.
“That’s how I like it.”
“Oh, I know,” Kyle retorts, and Kenny’s sweet, knowing giggle did little in appeasing him and more in making Kyle feel like he was fighting a losing battle.
Coming out from the café, Kyle appears somewhat defeated. They walk elbow to elbow not far before he comes to a slow halt, sighing out through his nose.
“I thought we could go without it, you know,” he says candidly. “Just take a breather. But now, I don’t know what I was thinking…”
Kenny didn’t say anything.
When they planned this date, Kyle had told Kenny that they should try to be more “hands-off” this time. A few too many times they had gotten carried away, and he figured maybe this time they could hold off on getting latched onto each other in public, avoid getting weird looks from strangers and focus on talking, but it only served to just complicate things. Brushing Kenny’s hand away during the movie, avoiding those little affections that would have led to lighthearted kisses – all of that just seemed so unnatural and hard to do, and having suggested such an idea, Kyle couldn’t deny it left him feeling annoyed with himself. “Why do I have to make a big thing out of everything…” he complained.
His head tilted contemplatively, Kenny asks, “Worried about too much of a good thing?”
Kyle felt almost dejected about the situation. He could only simply shrug, laughing in spite of himself and how much truth that question actually held. “I guess…”
An expression comes over Kenny’s features that was faintly more solemn and ardent than expected. “You think too much,” he says.
Of course, Kenny knew, and probably before their date even began. There was no way it could be helped. In fact, Kyle knew the daze he felt had a lot less to do with the weather, and far more to do with the way Kenny made him feel.
“Alright…” Kyle sighs, submitting and reaching out to finally take Kenny’s hand in his.
The contact instantly shifts Kenny’s mood, perking up like the touch had sent a delightful jolt through his whole body. His eyes shined with the big grin that came to his face, and there, outside the café, he pulled Kyle close and started leaving kisses on his cheek, and subsequently, the rest of his face.
“You’re really fucking hamming this up, aren’t you?” Kyle huffed, bracing his hand against Kenny’s arm. Still, he did nothing to stop him, even as people had to maneuver around them on the sidewalk. “Not in the eye though. Kenny… Kenny.”