neil and todd sitting on the floor of their dorm, leaning against their beds and its dark and its quiet and maybe its kinda tense. they should both be asleep, they know that, but neither are tired. maybe something happened at the dps meeting, and maybe the tense silence isnt a bad kind of uncomfortable, just. weird. cause they both know there's something they need to talk about, but neither wants to start.
cause maybe one of them read a love poem, or maybe someone else did, and one caught the other staring at him in some kind of way, in a kind of way he's seen before and done himself so he doesn't really mind, but it does kinda scare him.
or maybe it was something more direct -- grabbing his hand, a head on his shoulder, turning to look at him and their faces were close and eyes not looking at his, looking somewhere else, but it was just for a second, just cause he didnt realize they were sitting so close, just cause theyre always sorta like that.
and it feels like hours have passed in this uncomfortable-but-not silence, knees drawn to their chests and air still, but its probably only been no more than two minutes before todd says, so. and stretches out a leg, taps his ankle to neils.
neil's watching him, now, waiting. maybe he's always been watching.
why do you always look at me like that? todd asks without thinking.
i dont know. like the way you were looking at me earlier.
hm. i dont remember how i was looking at you earlier.
todd laughs, then, and neil does too. cause he's lying. he knows. they both do.
why are you making this so difficult? and todd's grinning when he says it, tilting his head.
making what difficult? neil's grinning, too. there's a glint in his eye and todd feels like he's buzzing.
you know. todd crosses the short distance between their beds and sits beside neil, pressing their sides together.
neil turns to face him, still smiling. hm?
it's unmistakable, todd decides, the way neil grabs his hand. it's unmistakable, now, in the way he's looking at him -- his face, his lips. and it's unmistakable, when he leans in to kiss him, slowly, the way he feels neils mouth open against his.