Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The cold air rifles Zane’s jet-black hair. Although the winter is coming to an end, the weather reflects how Zane feels about his life, cold and gloom. He was never the one to show much emotion, but this constant melancholy feeling he always carries with him like a ton of bricks. Loneliness has consumed him whole, a beast he can’t defeat, nor did he try. It was an impossible feat he always wished to do, but had enough brain cells to not go after it.

Walking into his house he brushed off the ever-lingering feeling, to put his groceries away. His weak arms were tired and he had no work that day, so he decided to do what he always does on these days; eat snacks in bed and hollow away from the world. Why try when you can instead cry? This wasn’t healthy. It's not like he cares what's good for him anyway, his arms were proof of that. He took his poptarts, hot fudge sundae, and crawled to his bedroom.

But before he made it to his bed, Zane spotted the letter. It was one of many, a love letter, a sign of weakness. In this specific letter, he never said the name of who it was addressed to. He was depressed that day and any time he thought of the name of the man, the one that he has pinned over for years, brought him to tears.

It was pathetic, like the sorry excuse of a man he is. In rage and sorrow, he crumpled up the paper and weakly threw it towards the trash can, just barely missing the can and landing on the floor instead. It didn’t matter, he was going to pick it up and put it with the others anyways; in a hidden drawer of sadness.

Climbing into bed, after getting properly dressed, falling face first; not wasting any time with going to sleep. The only thing stopping him at this point was his thoughts. He needs to stop thinking in this sad philosophical bullshit way, he doesn’t need to give the others any more reason to call him emo. He already still wears the same type of clothes he wore in high school: a black sweatshirt, black jeans, hair covering one half of his face, and a mask covering his mouth and nose.

Either way, Zane went to sleep, dreaming of someone who smells of sea salt, straight from the ocean. Someone whose smile was so bright it could replace the sun, and whose skin was so warm touching it felt like a nice cup of hot chocolate. A loud voice, almost laughter, that sounds just so sincerely filled with happiness it's contagious.

With big strong arms begging to hold someone, to make them feel safe, arms calling out to him. Zane could feel himself being pulled towards this kind, gentle, and warm figure. As he got closer he could almost touch the soft snow-white hair, grab that warm firm hand, feel his warm breath on his ski- * D I N G * * D O NG *!

That is the sound of a doorbell. His doorbell. Someone is at his door.

Fuck.

Tired and not wanting to deal with this, Zane tries to ignore the bell to no avail. Whoever is at the door won't stop ringing the bell for even a second, and sadly Zane knows exactly who loves to constantly abuse his doorbell. Getting up and slugging his way downstairs he opened his front door.

“What do you want?”

Despite his feminine stature, it is easy to see that he is male with his astonishing deep voice. It is deeper than everyone else, making them all jealous of his voice; especially his older brother. It didn’t help that he has sunken eyes, people believe it is from the amount of coffee he drinks, but it is also the fault of so much crying over the years. Though he would never admit to that. But despite all of that the person in front of him couldn't be more of the opposite.

Aphmau, his dear best friend, she’s everything he isn’t. She’s outgoing, likable, has a lot of friends, goes out a lot, has an upbeat personality, is absolutely gorgeous, and is loved by all. If he wasn’t friends with her since childhood he would hate her, but they are friends so here they are.
“Hey, grumpy pants! Were you sleeping?”
“Of course I was, but you woke me up. Why?”
“That's because it's like, 2 pm?”
“And?”

Aphmau, being used to Zane’s weird habits, decided to drop it; in favor of the real reason why she was here. “Well it doesn't matter, but what does matter is I'm throwing a party! And you're invited, and I will NOT be taking a no for an answer!”

“What? But didn’t you throw a party like last week?”
“Yes, but no one showed up! Not even Kawaii-Chan showed up! And She always shows up!”
“Well there's your problem, no offense but without Kawaii-Chan’s baked goods the party is not worth going to.”
“I KNOW! But I can assure you that she is coming this time. I made sure of that.”
“Ok, but why do I need to go?”. Zane was tired, and he knew that these types of gatherings always knock him out.
“Because you need to get out of your house once in a while! Plus Kawaii-Chan is making your favorite cupcakes for this party!”

His one weakness, those filthy pink chocolate cupcakes that give you heart failure the moment you see it; from both how cute it is and from diabetes. “Fine, but I don’t have anything good to wear.”

“Oh come on, I KNOW you got good clothes! What about the cute black turtleneck sweater I just got you not too long ago?”
“I don’t want to-”
But before Zane could say any bs excuse, Aphmau pushed her way in heading straight to his bedroom. “Oh no, you are wearing that turtleneck and you're going to like it! I don’t care if I have to be a mom about it!”

Zane, already accepting defeat, trails behind her. By the time he makes it into his room, he can see Aphmau already going through his clothing drawer. It doesn't take her long to find what she’s looking for, mainly because he only wears the same thing basically every day, and she put the sweater away in a spot she hoped would encourage him to wear it. That didn’t work.

“Here, the sweater and some pants. Put it on and then we are going to that party!”
“Like, right now?”
“Yes right now! Come on, I live less than a minute's walk from here, it's not that big of a deal.”
“But you haven't even told me what the party is for!”
“It is the redemption of last week's ‘Welcoming Summer’ party! But you don’t need to worry, it's not like a big party; just some snacks and non-alcoholic drinks with friends. It's not like one of those college parties Garroth used to throw.”

Ugh, Zane still has nightmares of Garroth’s old college parties. He knows he's an introvert, but even an extrovert would cower in fear of the goliath of a monster those parties were. “Fine! But I have to go clean up, this will take me a bit.”

“That’s ok! I will just clean up this mess you call a room while you take a shower or something.”
“Ok, but don’t go snooping around in my room! You know you're not allowed to touch my ‘My Little Horsies’ stuff!”
“Hey, I'm not that much of a bad friend!”
“All right.” And with a huff, Zane took all the things he needed and went to his bathroom, which was not too far away from his bedroom.

While Zane was showering Aphmau got to work, mainly just throwing things that were on the ground into the trash can. That was until she saw a crumpled piece of paper next to the bin while throwing something out. Not thinking too much of it, she picked it up, unraveled it, and read the paper, thinking that it was just some spam mail or something; but no, this oh THIS was something good.

The title was My dearly beloved and it was as clear as day to what this is, need she say more? She looked over to where Zane’s bathroom is, he was still blissfully taking his shower, unaware of the fact that all of his secrets were going to be read at that moment. But sadly for Aphmau, they weren't; as you see he never put the name of his beloved in this letter. Either way, this was still BIG news! A quick scan of the letter showed it to be useless, everything said in it was just some vague descriptions she could find in any love-related thing. All she got is the person is strong, has a great smile, and an amazing sense of humor; even if others might disagree.

Now, this racked Aphmau's head, who does she know that could fulfill all of those ‘requirements’? Who has a sense of humor that others disagree with but Zane would like? WHO in the world would ZANE like? Although Aphmau has always tried to get Zane to go out with someone, it never worked. There was always something wrong with the other person that would make Zane dislike them to the point Aphmau just thought Zane didn’t want to date, period. But this revelation was short-lived, as Zane was getting ready to leave the bathroom as the shower had just stopped.

Aphmau quickly pocketed the letter and started throwing things away, trying to make herself look busy. It didn’t take long for Zane to come out, and he was in fact wearing the turtleneck sweater.

“Happy?” Zane said in his most grungy voice.
“Yes! You look cute! And although I would like you to not wear that mask over your face, I won't bother you with that today.”
“Thank Irene.”
“Well come on, we got to get a move on!”

With another huff they made their way to the front door, Zane stopping to go and grab the things he needed like his phone. While he was doing this Aphmau decided to start some small talk in hopes of seeing who his mysterious beloved is.

“Just so you know, some of the people who I invited are: Garroth, Lucinda, Dante, Vlad, Kim, and Katelyn.”

Zane just replied with yet another huff. Aphmau, getting tired of this, thinks ‘Ok, I see how this is going to be today’. Yet in her hast to figure out this mystery crush she almost forgot someone.

“OH! I almost forgot that Katelyn is bringing Travis with her.”

Zane groaned at that, he made sure his back was facing Aphmau even though his face was covered, he didn’t want to show his distaste for that comment. It made his blood boil, the way how people just treat Travis like that; like he wasn't their friend but instead, just some nobody tagging along, or worse some misbehaving pet.

It especially wounds him up the way Katelyn treats him. She is just so abusive with him, hitting him all the time, yelling at him, telling him to do better, never letting him do the things he wants in, what's also, HIS relationship. I mean seriously, who would date someone they hate so much? He knows he is biased, Katelyn is a lovely person, but why is she such a bad partner? None of it made sense to Zane, how is everyone else fine with this? How is TRAVIS fine with this!?

Zane constantly gets a heart attack every time he sees Katelyn punches Travis, and when anyone asks what's wrong with him he just blames it on the sugar of the cupcakes, (and to be honest that's kinda true).

Zane, still heated but not wanting to show it, just leaves; heading for Aphmau's house. To his surprisement, and relief, Aphmau doesn't say anything on the matter. He must have been good enough at hiding his rage, or she just didn’t care; either way, the less he talks about that with people the better. The walk to Aphmau’s house was silent for a whole 2 seconds. Then Aphmau started talking about how the party is going to go, how fun it is going to be, how it's going to be so nice to talk with friends, how this is going to be a great party.

It was nothing Zane had not heard of before, she does this all the time as they walk to her house, and the party is the same all the time. He wonders why she has so many parties, it's not like everyone lives so far away, the parties are always just some talking and games with food and drinks, plus it got to be a pain to clean after all the time.

When they actually get to her house it is exactly what he expects. People, food, drinks, and music playing from somewhere you aren't. Zane did what he usually did, say hi, eat the food, and hide in the corner. There were some people he recognized, some he didn’t; it didn’t matter anyway, he wasn’t interested in talking to either. Throughout the whole party, he felt Aphmau watching him, which wasn’t out of the ordinary, she was watching him to see if he would finally decide to join in on the ‘fun’. Or that's what he thought at least. But in this awkward time, he saw it, him.

Travis, the big dumb flirt he is, doing what he does best, flirting with Katelyn. Despite his stupidity, you got to give it to him; he is persistent and loyal, to a fault sadly. And guess what happened? She hit him into the wall, and everyone just rolled their eyes… at Travis. This always puts a lump in his throat, his rage for Katelyn just grows each time he sees her put her hands on Travis. Despite the fact that Zane was obviously losing his cool, he did his best to hide it. It pained him to see Travis like this, hurt for doing his best; especially knowing that he would melt out of love if Travis did those things to him. But instead, Katelyn is the one getting all of his attention and is wasting it.

The rest of the night was uneventful, though Zane was glad about that because that meant he was able to leave peacefully. When he finally got home he tried to go back to bed; curling himself under all of his blankets in his favorite pajamas. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get what happened with Travis out of his head. All Zane wanted to do is go up to Travis and take him away; take him home and shower him in love. Make Travis feel safe and cared for, let him know that he is enough and deserves love. It's these thoughts that keep him up all night, these wants that have him crying himself to sleep since the 10th grade.

At the time he just thought it was young love, that it would go away, I mean he was just a 15 year old in the middle of puberty. He thought that since Travis obviously didn’t like people ‘like’ Zane, this would just be an embarrassing little crush; but little young Zane was so dense to how far in love he was that light could have bent around him. Now, 17 years later, he is laying in bed, crying like the 32 year old baby he is.

It took awhile for the pathetic specimen to fall asleep, but when he did he dreamt of loneliness; unfulfilled desires; and salty water. But this was not the water of the seas that calmed him so, this was the salt of his own tears. And this is how it was living the life of Zane Ro'meave, and how the next 8 days went by. He avoided everyone, went to work, ate junk food, and cried at the sight of his own face in the bathroom.

Chapter Text

It was sad but in his gloomy, lovestruck misery, he didn’t realize how easy it was to avoid the others. Usually, by now someone like Aphmau or his dear big brother Garroth would have at least checked up on him; but no, no one has come. But Zane was too occupied by his troubles in life to have realized that. But almost as if stars and moon have collided, all of those possible questions were going to be answered; whether Zane liked it or not.

The first sign something fishy was going on was the next party invite. Usually, Aphmau doesn't bother with physical invites; she knows it's useless since Zane would just ignore it, and she only lived a couple of seconds away. Though for some reason she decided on one for this party, and this was not just some normal invite, it looked expensive; the fake kind but still.

The second red flag was the location, it wasn’t at her house but instead at a nice little beach at the seaside, not too far away from here.

The third thing which confused him was underneath the location was a list of all of those who were coming. It was short but it seemed pretty normal except for the fact Katelyn was listed first and there was no sight of Travis on the list. This one confused him the most because this seemed right up his alley; a romantic beach night with the person he loved the most? Did Katelyn insist that he not come as to not embarrass her?

He was stumped, and sadly he knew there was only one way to get any answers to this weird puzzle. He would have to go to the party himself. Although it pained him, he knew there was no way he was going to get this god awful party off his mind.

So Zane went to his closet, and after 24 minutes of agony finally pulled out a decent outfit. It was basically what he always wears but he picked out the clothes with the least amount of stains and got out his old black fake leather jacket, which was actually pretty cool. He just had no reason to wear it so it sat around collecting dust.

After cleaning his clothes, which he put the most effort into any outfit for a party since Aphmau’s wedding he just realized, he simply waited. And though the party was only happening tomorrow, this was seemingly the hardest part. He guessed the anticipation and pure mystery of the whole situation was eating away at him. But somehow he did manage to fall asleep, after eating a LOT of chocolate. He was hungry ok?

When he woke up he still had almost 2 hours before the party; so he got ready, ate food, took his shower, and put on the clothes he picked out for the party. He played games on his phone until he got into his car and drove to the beach; he was about 15 minutes early but it seemed that everyone was there already.

‘Weird, I know at least someone like Garroth is always late,' Zane thought, but he brushed it off and walked towards the beach. From afar it seems as if they were in a heated debate about something, but when Zane came close into view everyone stopped and it was all smiles; even Dante smiled at him which just creeped him out.

Aphmau was the first to say hello, “OH ZANE! I’m so happy you came! And it looks like you dressed up yourself for the occasion!”
“Yeah yeah, whatever. What even is this party about? And why the weird invite?”
“Oh come on, don’t look so sour! Just trust me, you're going to have a blast!”
“If you say ‘come on’ one more time I swear-”

But before Zane could finish his sentence Aphmau already took his arm and started dragging him to one of the little events set up, “We have already started playing Kan Jam! And lucky for you Katelyn doesn't have a partner yet, so you will be hers!”

“Hooray,” Zane said in his most defeated voice.

The game was fine at best, Katelyn being amazing at it, as she is with every sport, and Zane being subpar. Honestly, Katelyn alone could have won the game, and she was the only reason they even came close. But once the game was done Aphmau took no time getting everyone at the next game, not giving them a chance to rest.

Zane was still paired up with Katelyn, he wasn’t too happy but it seemed that everyone kept the same partner, so Zane didn’t make a fuss over it. But what did make him wonder was that that same thing kept happening! They would play, finish, but before they could sit down, Aphmau would come out of nowhere and say we are starting the next game. What was also weird was he was pretty sure Aphmau was staring at him the whole time, but she tried to play it off.

In some games, everyone would get a new partner, but he was STILL with Katelyn! This confused him, what was Aphmau planning? But he was an introvert, and Katelyn didn’t seem to mind, so he kept all of this to himself. When they eventually eat, he eats next to Katelyn, when people went swimming in the ocean Zane just sat on the dock and put his feet in, and Katelyn sat next to him.

You can start to see the pattern right? No matter what Zane did, Katelyn wasn’t too far behind. Zane wanted to ask Aphmau what was up with that, he DID try to, but no matter what she was always too busy to talk. She was never too busy to talk to an entire party like, EVER. Something fishy was DEFINITELY going on, but no one was interested in saying what.

When the party finally was over, Zane hurried home; but Katelyn stopped him to say that she had a “Fun time playing with him”, Zane only responded with a “You too” and sped walked to his car. ‘What a weird day’ Zane thought; but sadly for Zane, this wasn’t going to last only one day.

It didn’t take Aphmau long to find another excuse for Zane to come and hang out with her and some others. And she, yet again said all of those who were coming; starting with Katelyn, and there was no Travis. Zane was getting a little pissed off, but he had to go just to ask Aphmau what was going on.

He decided that this one he wasn’t going to dress up, and he’ll just go in his usual outfit. This event was a Karaoke Night at Aphmau’s, and even if he decided to not go, Aphmau barged into his house and dragged him over there. Zane tried his best to ask her what was going on, but she would always change the topic or brush it off. After a bunch of going back and forth; Zane saying something like

“What was that invitation to the last party?” “Why were you ignoring me?” “Why are you forcing me to go to ANOTHER party?”
Aphmau would always say something like, “You're just worrying about nothing.” “I wasn’t ignoring you, you just looked busy so I let you be.” “You need to get out more!”

Nothing he was saying was getting through, and he was getting upset. This is his best friend, he thought, why is she treating me this way? When he got there everyone was acting normal. It seemed as though they had already started singing, and of course, when Zane walked in they demanded that he sing next.

Zane tried to protest, but it seems that no one was listening to him and forced him onto the stage. He begrudgingly sang; mainly because he had no choice, and he ended up picking his song. While he sang, he realized that Katelyn was right up front, guess it was his lucky day was it huh? He did a fine job at singing and ignored everyone's applause as he went straight for the back. And to his dismay, Katelyn went over to sit next to him once he sat down.

“Hey, that was some nice singing.”
Zane, internally groaning, “Thanks.”
“Yeah, you have a pretty nice voice. Do you practice at all?”

The answer was an obvious no. But Zane has to admit that his naturally deep voice does give him an upper hand in anything that he has to use it in. “No, but I guess I have a pretty good voice. I mean Garroth has always been jealous of it since I got out of puberty.”

“Oh yeah! Your voice back then was so awful it would scare all the birds away!”
“Thanks.”
“It was so bad it sounded like a machine had a tea kettle stuck inside it!”
“Hey, could-”
“Your voice was cracking so much that if it was a road it would be considered a huge safety hazard.”

At this point, Zane decided to not humor her and focus his attention on Aphmau. She was doing a bad job of covering up the fact she was staring right at him. Zane was getting annoyed and tired with this bullcrap, he just wanted to go home and sleep, not whatever this is.

Katelyn was still on about some garbage he did not care for when whoever went after him was done. For some reason, this sparked something in Katelyn’s head, “Oh, I got a good idea! Why don’t we do a duet?”

“A what?”
“A duet! And don't be a grump about it 'cause you don't got a choice.”

While Zane was doing his best to interrupt her or get her to stop pulling on his arm, she just took the both of them to the front. She then picked a song automatically, handed Zane a mic, and told him to not mess this up “or else”. Zane doesn't remember what song she picked, some dumb love song probably as Aphmau’s karaoke machine only seemed to have that, but that didn't matter as Zane was mad.

Zane would be clenching his jaw so tight he would have broken his teeth if he wasn’t currently singing. He was squeezing his hand so tight he almost thought he made his hand bleed, but no, it was just the sweat from all of his pent-up anger. This was getting out of hand, to say the least. When they finished, Katelyn was just soaking up all of the praise; and Zane knew that he wasn’t going to stay here for much longer.

Zane calmly left the spotlight, and when Katelyn tried to start some talk or something; Zane just excused himself to the bathroom. As Zane walked into the bathroom he pretended to use it, as he waited for all of the attention to fade onto someone else. After a bit of discourse, Dante took the stage, “Perfect”.

Dante is a loud and eye-catching man, in the sense that you can’t look away from a car crash when you know someone is going to die. Zane took this opportunity and snuck out of the party, and when he was outside turned off his phone and rushed back home. He knew Aphmau was going to be mad at him, but he is already annoyed with her so he doesn't care what she thinks.

At this point Zane KNEW Aphmau was 100% up to something, the problem was figuring out what when she refuses to even talk with him. He was also skeptical about Katelyn, what was her role in all of this? And why is Travis excluded from all of this? What are they doing that they need him to just not be there entirely for? Do they just not trust him that much?

Chapter Text

When Zane gets home he just puts his phone in the charger and lays down. He was so angry but his body was just giving in; he mentally couldn’t handle this. He wanted to lay down and never get up; unless Travis woke him up, he would like that.

All Zane could think about was Travis. How he could brighten a room the moment he stepped into it. How his silliness seems so simple that it annoys other people, but to Zane, it's the one and the only thing that makes him laugh anymore. Zane dreams that one day Travis would flirt with him, give him all of his love; instead of someone who can’t appreciate all of his beauty.

It was just one simple ask, something he wanted for 17 years. Why did the world got to curse him with the fact that the only one he could ever love would never love him back? It was driving him insane!

That night Zane fell asleep crying; it was the only thing he could do. He was so tired when he eventually woke he didn’t move; he was hungry but his sadness glued him to his bed. Once Zane found enough strength he picked up his phone and turned it on. As he expected, his phone was blown up by mainly Aphmau, and some by Garroth. Yeah no, he wasn't reading that; especially since Aphmau didn’t care enough to tell him whatever she was doing.

He somehow managed to crawl out of bed and brewed himself some coffee. It helped little, but with some snacks, he at least wasn't that hungry anymore. The rest of the day he sat at home rewatching some shows, he didn’t put that much thought into anything he did.

His phone didn’t stop buzzing, but he was still persistent in not giving Aphmau the time of day. Even if she broke down his door he still wouldn’t respond. What great friends he has. Though he only got himself to blame for that, he was too scared to make friends growing up he now has close to none. Even now Zane has no clue on how to make friends, but he is not a fan of figuring out how.

It seems as if Aphmau got the hint, as she stopped trying to get to him after the second day of spamming his phone. There was some silence on her end which Zane appreciated, but on the 10th day, Aphmau went to his house to speak in person.

“I feel as if I might have been a bit weird as of late.”

Zane was standing in front of his front door, with a very embarrassed Aphmau on the other side. “And I feel as though that is a bit of an understatement!”

“OK OK LISTEN! I'm sorry, I just got excited and forgot that you hate parties. I am here just to tell you that I and the others are going to the movies to watch the new horror movie I have been waiting for. It would mean a lot if you could come with me!”
“Are you serious?”
“Please Please PLEASE!! I am so SORRY! I will PROMISE you this will be a good time! And I will be 100% transparent with you, no funny business.”

Zane thought for a bit while he watched his friend turn into a puddle of tiers in front of him. He was mad, but this was Aphmau. She was always known to let her emotions take hold of her, plus she was only doing this just to help him. Zane knows Aphmau has always been trying to get him to make friends; this was probably one such occasion of using people he already knew.

Though this doesn't explain why Travis wasn't there for the events, Zane finally gave in. “Ok Fine”
“YAY!”
“BUT on ONE condition!”
Aphmau silenced and gave Zane her best soldier-serious face
“You must not ignore me, and you MUST tell me the truth about what's going on. OK?”
“Aye aye captain!” Aphmau said with a little salute.

Zane smirked at his friend's gesture, she has always been such an energetic person. “Ok, I presume we are going to be leaving soon?”
“Yep! We are going to that mall that we got your sweater from. Go and get ready, we are all going as a group.”

With that, she ran and started yelling things happily at her husband Aaron, who just nodded as he probably already knew what she was going to say at this point. Zane would be a liar if he didn’t say he was a bit jealous of their relationship, but anyone would be a liar if they didn’t think that at least once. They were so cute together, sweetly so. He was happy that his friend could find love, even if it was such a struggle for him.

Zane mainly mentally prepared himself, physically he was ready; but mentally he never is ready. Zane could only picture what was going to happen when he got to the mall. ‘What if this is a trick? Maybe she has a plan cooking up? What if this ends up being another potion accident?’

But Zanes pushed away these thoughts, he was only paranoid. Plus Lucinda banned her from even touching another potion after she almost spilled what was just Sulfuric Acid onto herself, thinking it was another cat potion or something. Zane doesn't know what was going on inside her brain, but either way, it was a HUGE mess.

Zane quickly tried to leave before the paranoia got worse. He jumped into his car, put in the key and started the car, and went towards Aphmau's house. It was chaos as it usually is, everyone fighting and trying to figure out who was driving and who was going into what car. Zane was trying to bargain with his social anxiety; as Aphmau finally pulled out of the driveway. Forcing Zane to follow instead of high tailing it out of there.

While Zane surveyed the area he did not see Travis in the commotion, which just made him wince. He was expecting it, but he hoped that, maybe against whatever odds he had, there might be a chance, but no.

No matter what Zane did, his thoughts always lead him back to him. For one Zane let himself slip a little while in the safety of his own car, just to think of him one last time before he had to forget he existed for another day, and pretend that he had never felt love, not once in his life.

Normally it isn't this hard, loving Travis that is. I mean he usually doesn’t have it THIS bad. For most of his life, he went through each day with no emotions, just an empty husk doing what he has to do to survive. Sometimes though he got a bit extreme and resorted to extreme measures to balance it out. Though he only did that when he was younger, when he was less experienced with weird and wild emotions that didn’t make sense. He hoped that he was past that. He counted on that this was just a one off fluke, that this would be over quickly and he could go back to his boring normal life.

Near the end of Zane’s self-deprecating monologue, The group had made it to their destination. A movie theater that was attached to a mall, and it was pretty nice. Whoever had this idea to put the two together was smart, as people could come early so as to not miss their movie, and then spend their money at the mall which they probably wouldn't have otherwise.

Zane and the group were one of those people. As they walk in, Zane confirms that Travis is not a part of the group again, but tries his best to forget that he even tried. He was now starting to be self-conscious of how desperate he was, and hoped it didn’t show. And everything went as normal, everyone mostly went their separate ways, buying useless things, some trinkets here and there, pretty standard stuff.

As the time for the movie was getting closer they met back at the food court, where they all chatted about what they bought and the movie they were about to see. Zane wasn't feeling it though, whilst Aphmau was excited about this movie, it wasn't Zane’s favorite. It's not like he expected it to be bad; it just wasn’t his type of movie.

Despite Zane trying to tough it out for the sake of it, Aphmau could see right through him. Aphmau might be a bit antsy at times, but she made a promise to Zane and she wasn't just going to drag him along for the fun of it. So she went up to him when the others were talking and nudged him.

“I know I forced you to come, but you can say no if you want,” Aphmau gave Zane her best reassuring face.
“I'm aware, I just…,” Zane didn't know what to say. He wanted to stay just to be with his friend, but wasn't against just baling and going home.
“Look, I’ve been pretty pushy recently, I realized that, and I don't want to start something between us over something so trivial like this. So if you ain't up to it, just tell me ok?” She then gave Zane a little pat on the back.

Zane looked at her, and all he could see on her face was just sincereness. She was right, he didn’t want to be here, so he nodded at her and she nodded back. She then handled the talking for him. It's moments like this where he remembers why she’s his best friend. She always knows to take a step back before it gets too big, even if it took a bit, and she always has his back. When he couldn’t handle the pressure of talking to people she would do it for him. It's not like was afraid or he couldn’t do it himself, there are just times when he would rather not and she would realize that quickly. So at times she would do it for him.

And Zane was glad she was doing it right now, as he is notoriously bad at leaving social situations. As proof, the last place he left when he was with these guys was at the karaoke night, where he ran away when no one was looking.

When Aphmau was done telling the others that Zane was planning to leave early, and Zane was about to dash out the door, Katelyn spoke out, “You know what? I actually want to hang out here with Zane.”

At first, Zane was furious, he already hates her guts; why in the world would he want to-! Zane took a deep breath, he realized this was going to get him nowhere. He also realized that maybe he's been a bit too harsh on Katelyn. His hate for her is not towards her, but the way she treats Travis. And despite his deepest desires, it was none of his business; if there was a problem, Travis wouldn't keep coming back to her, right?

Zane had to admit defeat, “Sure, I'm down for that.”

That seemed to be enough for everybody else, as they said their goodbyes to the two and went to watch their movie. And Zane’s worries about how Katelyn was going to act were quickly washed away, as she was nice and cordial for the entire time they were there. Zane could even say that, now that he didn’t feel as if this was all forced, he enjoyed his time with Katelyn.

Katelyn is a nice and friendly person, with no strings attached. They even talked about things they like and figured out that they did share some things in common. Turns out they both like to cook; Katelyn likes to cook mostly French or western European foods, while Zane likes to cook more Japanese or Asian food. They even traded some of their favorite recipes.

And when they did have some differing interests, they just shared them and the other listened. They were always respectful of each other. It was nice, especially for Zane who never goes out and makes friends. He didn’t feel like there was any pressure or expectations that he had to meet. He could chill and it didn’t matter, this wasn’t a deep connection or relationship here. This was just a conversation, one that would end and they will go their separate ways. This is what Zane likes in a friendship.

The things they got also tended to be different. Katelyn got new clothes, candles, and some household nick-nacks. Zane tended to go to more ‘childish’ things, game stores like Lego. He did avoid stores like Hot Topic; no, not happening, he simply refused. But he did end up getting a nice 2 person tea set, it just had this lovely, charming, design that he couldn’t say no to.

When Katelyn wasn’t looking, Zane spotted the most adorable, fattest, droopy-looking white bear Zane has ever seen. In an instant, this amazing thing reminded him of Travis and he needed to buy it.

So Zane concocted a plan. He found Katelyn and told her he wanted to drop his things in his car, and then made his way out. Stopping just to quickly buy this magnificent bear. Once the goods were got, he quickly made his way back; Katelyn none the wiser.

As the two walked around in some clothing store, Zane spotted some nicer looking clothing. It seems as though Katelyn got an idea from this.

“You should get some nice clothes yourself”
Zane, not really paying attention before, “Uh?”
“Zane, I and everyone knows, you got like two nice shirts and that's it. Why not get something while you're here.”

Zane thought about it, and she's 100% right about the shirt thing. And the more thought he puts into it, the more sad Zane realizes it is. The only reason he never had more good looking clothes was because he never had a reason to have any. It's not like he goes out to places, but maybe he could? Ok, maybe not, but he can buy nice clothes in the hopes to.

“Sure, it wouldn't hurt.” Zane now went around with a purpose. Zane found some nice black pants, but no shirt. He was stumped on this one, he kept searching; but no luck. It was only when he went in a different aisle to leave when it hit him. On the left side of the story they had jackets, and not just any jacket; leather jackets.

It was perfect for him, black, slick, and cool. What was there not to love about leather jackets? It didn't take him long before he found a nice fake leather jacket. Katelyn then shoowed him into a changing room. The jacket came down almost to his finger tips, it was nice. He can totally see himself wearing it, with his nice skinny jeans he doesn’t look half bad.

Zane steps out of the changing room, “How's this?”
Katelyn looks him up and down, “Pretty nice for once. This look definitely suits you.”
Zane, feeling confident, changes out of the clothes and buys it.

After a while of hanging out and goofing about, Zane got hungry and they went their separate ways. Katelyn kept shopping while Zane went to grab a quick bite. Zane went around the food court, deciding which low-quality, billion-dollar corporation was gonna take his money today. Then in the corner of his eye, he spotted an individual who looked thoroughly lost. An individual who took Zane completely off guard.

“Travis?!?!” Zane's head was spinning. This was the last person he expected to see, mainly because of the fact he has been excluded from all the gatherings Zane has been going to. And if Zane was happy to see Travis, well that happiness was about to fade.

Travis, with newly found confidence, “YOU!”

Chapter Text

The tune at which Travis was speaking was so angry that it took Zane by surprise, “Me?”.
“YES, YOU! What do you think you're doing?!”
“G-getting food?”
“Stop acting dumb! You know exactly what you're doing!”

Travis was being so aggressive that Zane took a physical step back, he had no idea what was making Travis lose his mind and temper like that. Zane almost wanted to cry, but he instead tried to focus on Travis which, for the first time in his life, was hard. “I genuinely don't know what you’re going on about?”

“OH COME ON! Do you really think I’m THAT dumb? Everyone knows what you're trying to pull! Do you think I can just let that slide?!?!” Travis was getting closer to him, but Zane didn’t back down, “I’m sorry but yo-”

“YOU SHOULD BE SORRY YOU FUCKING PROFLIGATE!”

Travis is now right up to Zane's face, and Zane can see that Travis is far from well. His face looks emotionally beat up, with bags under his eyes, and streaks that only form from intensive crying.

Zane, ignoring the insult, “Are you ok?”
“NO! Why would you think I’m ok with any of this?!”

Zane can now tell that the anger was turning into depression, he could faintly see Travis holding himself back, so as to not burst right in front of everyone right now; well more than he already has. The only problem was Zane had no clue what Travis was talking about, and he was not helping clear things up right now, to say the least.

“Travis, you need to tell me more if you want me to understand anything you’re saying! Insulting me is not gonna get you answers!”
“You know, the thing that Aphmau told everyone!”
Zane, now suddenly worried, “What thing?”
“You know

the letter?”

In almost a moment of clarity and horror, Zane now does know what Travis is talking about.
“THE LETTER!”
Travis, now the one taken aback, “Uh, Yes? The letter that Aphmau showed everyone?”
“SHE SHOWED IT TO EVERYONE!”
“Yes? You didn’t know that?”

Zane only barely heard the last thing Travis said as Zane rushed out of the mall, with his heart pumping rapidly. Zanes' mind was racing with nonsense. Zane checked the time, the movie should have ended a couple of minutes ago. Zane dashed around passer byers, and the weird looks people gave him. Zane doesn't think he can ever come back to this mall again, but that's future Zane's problem. Right now he needs to find Aphmau.

It took a bit of searching, as Zane was being so frantic he was doing a poor job, but Zane eventually was able to hear the loud talking of the one and only Aphmau. As Zane rounded the corner he saw her in clear sight, chatting away with no care in the world.

“APHMAU!” Zane's face was hot with anger. He couldn’t believe she would DO something like this! Actually no, he COULD see her doing this; which is the worst part. He felt all the trust he had for her melt away. How foolish he was to think she would be honest, unlike the others. Turns out she’s just as bad.

“A-ah? Zane? What’s up?” Aphmau was nervous; unaware that she was gonna be thrown for a loop as her past deeds would come back to punch her in the face.
“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU APHMAU?! WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!”
“Do what?” Aphmau was getting shifty-eyed, trying her best to uphold a smile, which only made Zane madder.

Zane was about to lose it, he had no idea which letter Aphmau somehow got her hands on. And some letters are A LOT worse than others, and who knows how many people she showed it to?
“THE LETTER! YOU STOLE MY LETTER! WHAT MADE YOU THINK THAT WAS OK!”

“Ooohhhh! That, well, you, I mean, what's the problem?” Aphmau is now sweating bullets.
“WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? I’ll tell you what! IT’S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS THAT'S WHAT! Why would you think you had any right to know THAT kind of personal stuff? AND THEN TELL OTHERS WITHOUT MY PERMISSION!”
Aphmau, knowing she’s a dead man, “Well it's not THAT bad?”
“IT IS THAT BAD! Do you still have it?!?!”

Knowing that she made a BIG mistake, Aphmau rummaged through her bag and pulled out a single piece of paper. Zane takes it with such force it throws Aphmau back a second; she knew he was going to not be happy when the truth came out, but she WILDLY miscalculated HOW bad.

Zane read the letter desperately and calculating how devastating this was going to be. And to his relief, it was the one where he didn’t put Travis’s name on it. And Zane was able to take a deep breath before turning it back around with full force at Aphmau.

“How long were you planning on not telling me this!”
“Not that long, I promise!”
“And the last promise you made to me you said you would tell me the truth! Hiding important information is NOT telling the truth!”

Aphmau was hopping from one foot to the other as she tried to figure out what to say next. “Wellllllll, I-”, Aphmau took a deep breath and quickly said, “I know how you are with love! You would rather deny the fact you can feel just to not inconvenience anyone else! Don’t you deserve love too?”

“I understand that, but don't you think this crosses some boundaries?”
“Maybe I went at this the wrong way, and I'm sorry for that, but you're not the one to stand up for yourself in this type of situation, so I took it into my own hands.”
“That's not a good excuse! You’re just evading the problem and putting the blame on me!”
“Yes, I'm sorry! Sorry! You have done nothing wrong! I just want to see you happy!”
“YOU THINK ‘THIS’ MAKES ME HAPPY!”

At this time everyone else is just slowly backing away from what is happening, hoping to not get involved. This is when Katelyn comes out to see the mess. She asks her confused friends to figure out what is going on, and they either don’t know or don’t want to know. And not too long after, comes Travis; who just looks defeated, then confused. Which makes everyone paying attention more bewildered.

“I'M SORRY BUT-” Aphmau is still choking up.
“IS THAT ALL YOU HAVE TO SAY? ‘I'm sorry’! Why not explain why you SHOWED it to everyone!” It is easy to see that Zane is red in the face, even with the limited amount you can see of it.
“Well even without the letter, I can tell that you are so much happier with the one you love. Why not give them a shot?”
“How do you know ‘who I love’?!”
“Zane, I'm your best friend, there are not that many people who you COULD love. Trust me, it wasn't hard to connect the dots.”
“Ok, even so, why not ask me first? Before, I don’t know? EVERYONE ELSE?!”
“You would just deny it, you do it all the time!”
“So your best idea was to string me along and hope that I would, what, ask them out eventually?”
“Yeah? That's kinda it?”
Zane, very puzzled, ”Why would you think that?”
“Because you just need to come out of your shell! Come on, you and Katelyn look so cute together! Why not?”

“BECAUSE HAVE YOU MET ME? I'M NOT TYPE OF-” Zane stops and finally processes what Aphmau said, “Wait. Repeat that, what?”
“You and Katelyn are a great match ok? Everyone thinks so, please just listen, we care about you!”

Aphmau's weird behavior finally makes sense. She, somehow, thought HE was in love with Katelyn, instead of Travis. Zane thought back to the last time Aphmau had been in his room, she had cleaned it and the letter was on the floor. She then started to pair him up with Katelyn. And had him sing with her. Left them alone in the mall together. This was Aphmau's attempt to have them go on a ‘date’.

Zane pinched the bridge of his nose. He then slowly turned around and asked, “How many of you think I'm in love with Katelyn?” The group looked at each other and all raised their hands. This is when Zane sees that both Katelyn and Travis are in said group, raising their hands. Well, that at least explains why Travis was mad at him before.

There was now just one question in his mind, “Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why Katelyn?”
Someone in the group asks, “You are in love with Katelyn right?”
“NO! NOT AT ALL! What would make me LOVE her? No offense Katelyn, you’re a nice person, BUT WHY WOULD I LOVE HER!”

This startles everyone. Aphmau pipes up, “Well I thought with the way you look at her, well I just-”
Zane cuts her off, “You thought a LOT of wrong things about me, it turns out.”
“FINE, if you don't love Katelyn, then who do you love?
“That is definitely NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!” Zane pokes his finger at Aphmau. “Not after all of THIS”.

The tension in the room is getting so thick it is almost impossible to breathe. “If you don't tell me who you love I will figure it out! Mark my words!”

Zane can tell Aphmau is being serious about that statement. But it's not like he cares, he will never tell her that he’s in love with Travis. And if the fact she was so fully convinced he was in love with Katelyn instead shows anything, it says she's not getting what she wants anytime soon.

“I don't care what you think! I'm out of here, fuck you!” With that, Zane stormed off. He went to his car, put the rest of his stuff that he bought in the back with the others, and sat in the driver's seat. He was just so tired. He couldn’t think, it was like all the fire burning inside of him just went out. He didn’t know if he wanted to cry or collapse. He looked at that dumb bear in the back seat, and after a bit, his body came back to him; letting him drive home.

When he made it he didn't bother with the stuff he just purchased, just shakingly made his way to his room. When he hit the bed it seems his mistakes of the past decided to come and hunt him, as he was unable to fall asleep. He tossed and turned but the memories of not only today, but all the times he almost let slip his crush flooded his brain.

In the mess of the state his mind is in, Zane got up and went to that secret drawer. Opening it was like a tsunami of mistakes and regret. Lost potential, the hope of what could have been. Zane picked up each one and read it, the worst ones, and the ok ones. He was glad Aphmau only found that one letter, as some of these were pretty bad. Some even made him laugh, some made him laugh at himself.

It would be a good couple of hours before Zane can find it in himself to put them all away; a lot more carefully too. He didn't want any more loose letters getting into anyone else's hands. By the time Zane was able to force himself to sleep it was midnight, what a waste of a day.

Chapter Text

Zane woke up the next morning, or well afternoon, to a still feeling in the air. The one close to how it feels when you're sick, it ain't terrible, but deftly not good. Zane layed stuck to his bed, not wanting to get up like every other day of his. But the disgusting feeling wasn't going away, so he got up to take a shower; hoping that would help. At the very least it should wake him up.

It didn’t. Zane was still so tired, unable to process the events of yesterday. Zane looked at his phone, and guess what? It was spammed by his so-called ‘friends’. He didn’t care enough to deal with their BS, so he put his phone down.

After eating something he dug out of his kitchen, Zane mustered up the courage and went to his car. Once he opened the door he saw it; the bear. Zane wanted to say it judged him, but its lopsided eyes didn’t seem to be capable of doing that. The damn bear was just too cute.

Zane took two trips bringing his stuff in; one with everything, and another just for the bear. Although it was just some stuffed toy, Zane didn’t want to be spotted with it. He quickly hurried the big boy to his room. Once safe Zane just melted into the bear.

It was hard for him to hold all of these emotions together. And to top it off he felt betrayed by the person he called his best friend. He felt alone, lost. He cried into that bear until he was just choking. Wet, defeated, and a mess. Zane looked up all groggily, he looked around and spotted his phone. He was going to have to pick it up eventually.

On his bed, still holding close to the huge bear, Zane looks through his messages. It was mainly what he expected, missed calls, pleas for forgiveness, and demands to know his love life. There were only two things out of the ordinary, first Katelyn hasn’t texted him anything, and second Travis DID text him something.

Zane squeezed the bear closer as he tapped on what Travis texted him. There was only one text:

‘I feel like we should talk. Please tell me when you’re available.’

Zane had no clue what that meant. ‘I feel like we should talk’? What does Travis know? What would this talk be about? Zane wanted to answer immediately with YES but his fear screamed NO. This could go either two ways, and Zane’s luck right now wasn't great. He felt- no he NEEDED, to talk with Travis. But was he ready for his world to crumble if this goes wrong?

Before he convinces himself the worst, Zane texts back, ‘I’m available whenever. Where do you want to meet?’

It took a bit of waiting, which felt like hours of death to Zane, but Travis does reply. ‘I was feeling we could go to that nice little beach right next to that ice cream shop. Not the best description but you know what im talking about right?’

Zane does, it was the beach that Aphmau sent the invitation for. At the first party where Aphmau tried to pair him up with Katelyn. Zane right away texted back, ‘Yeah, I know. How about we meet at 5?’ It was almost 3 at the time of him sending that text, giving him about 2 hours to prepare.

All Travis sends back is, ‘sure sounds good’.

Zanes' heart is racing. He tries to calm himself, feeling thoughts of anxiety creeping its way in. But Zane wasn’t going to lose, not now anyway. He had time to doubt his self-worth after talking with Travis, right now he has to worry about looking presentable.

It took Zane a bit of time to do that, he did just cry his heart out not too long ago. But with a lot of effort, and a lot of talking to himself, he was as ready as he could get. After going back and forth with himself, Zane wore the new clothes he just got. What is the point of buying nice clothes if you don't take the opportunity to wear them when it arrives? Zane took so long getting ready that he had to rush to the car and just drive.

The car ride there was the worst part. It was just him and his thoughts, his evil, poisonous thoughts. It was hard for Zane to not get distracted by the worst case scenario, so he tried to hyper-focus on the road. Which only worked for a little while. But thankfully, the trip there doesn't go on forever, he does stop at the beach eventually.

The thought of leaving the car screamed in Zanes' ears but he felt glued to his seat. He couldn’t move. ‘What if I slip up?’ ‘What if I tell him the truth?’ ‘Am I ready to know how he feels?’ ‘What if he hates me?’ ‘What if I do something I can't take back?’. Without knowing, Zane is already out of his car facing the beach.

Well, there's no going back. Zane went down to the edge of the beach, taking one last breath before his eyes find him. God did he look good. Though Zane can see Travis was not completely better from the mess of yesterday, he looked so nice in the sunset light.

His skin glowed in the orange light. He looked so at peace, like he belonged here. Forever soaking up the sun's warmth at sea. It honestly took Zanes' breath away at how enchanting Travis looked by the sea. As much as Zane wanted to stand here and take in the bliss, he was here for a reason.

Travis turned around, looking Zane in his eye. “Oh! H-hi. You made it.”
“Yeah, so, you want to talk?” Zane looked away towards the sea. He was going to melt if had to look into Travis’s eyes for long.
“Yeah, yeah. So, yesterday. Uh.”
“Yeah, that happened.”

Silence, just the sounds of the waves between them. It was clear they both didn’t know what to say, and it was just getting more awkward with each passing second.

That was until Travis finally spoke out in one breath, “OK I need to say I’m sorry for what I said yesterday!”
Zane was a little startled by the sudden break of silence. “Oh, that. Don't sweat it, it seems Aphmau just made one big misunderstanding. I won't blame you for that.”
“I know, but I could have handled it better. What I did was not appropriate, to say the least,” Travis had his hand behind his head, embarrassed of his past outburst.

Zane turned his head to catch it, and it just brought a smile to his face. Travis was looking at the sand all guilty. Zane loves all of Travis’s childish behaviors, it just makes this big man look so soft. “Hey! Don’t beat yourself up about it, you hear me? We all make mistakes, trust me I make at least one a day.”

This seemed to at least make Travis look less like a distressed baby. “Thanks man, after what Katlyn did, I kind of lost it.”
“After what Katelyn did?”
Travis hissed through his teeth, “How much of the ‘Getting with Katelyn’ plan were you aware of?”
“I didn’t know anything until you told me about the letter. What happened?”

Travis’s eyes widen as he remembers what led to this disaster. He tells Zane that the day after the ‘Welcoming Summer’ party part 2, Aphmau called everyone but Zane to ‘talk’. There she showed everyone Zane’s letter and claimed she thinks it was made for Katelyn. Travis obviously objected to this proposal and tried to stay it away from Katelyn, but didn’t know who to. This only made Aphmau double down, no one knew who else it could be, and she was Zane's best friend, right? Shouldn’t she know him the best?

Katelyn, after a bit of listening to Aphmau's idea, decided to ‘go for it’. Turns out Katelyn was fine with just throwing away her and Travis’s relationship, just like that. She was the one who mainly set up all these ‘dates’, and when Travis questioned her she told him to ‘suck it up’ or ‘if you don't like it leave’. The others didn’t even stick up for him, they only replied with the ‘if you don't like it leave’ thing.

This hurt Travis so much. It got to the point where the hurt turned into seething rage for Zane. This is why he exploded when they met at the mall.

Aphmau also told everyone that she told Zane about the letter, but he didn’t elaborate on who it was for. She also said to them she and Zane were planning together on this, that he knew what she was doing, and was doing it willingly. The only thing she admitted was that she didn’t tell Zane she was planning with Katelyn, as to ‘make him feel like the one in charge’.

Zane was floored by this. Not only did Aphmau lie to him, but lied to everyone else as well. Zane made sure Travis knew that he knew nothing about anything Aphmau was planning. Zane also reassured Travis that he did NOT want to be a homewrecker, in any way. Travis now knows this, but appreciates Zane saying it out loud nevertheless.

Travis shrugs, “Honestly I was surprised that not more people tried to debunk Aphmau's claims”.
“And to think these people actually knew me. I’m mostly surprised that out of everyone it was Katelyn they thought I was in love with” Zane gave a small weak chuckle.
Travis seemed to turn shy and asked, “Do you think you might know why she thought Katelyn?”

Zane did know, it was because he loves Travis. Somewhere, probably when he was looking at them together as a couple, Aphmau either saw his love for Travis or his hatred for Katelyn and got the truth twisted.

“Well, you see-” Zane was hesitant, one wrong word and he might be forced to slip the whole truth. “I’m going to be straight with you, you’re a good guy Travis”
“Ok?”
“And I think, I know you don’t want to hear this but you need to, you deserve better than Katelyn.”
“How does this have-”

Zane interrupts him, “Please just listen. I see the way she treats you and it's horrible, anytime you want to show your love she hurts you for it. For fucks sake, you are KNOWEN for your flirting, and she punches you every time for it. You are excited to give her gifts you think she’ll like, and she criticizes you on what you got her; disregarding the effort and thought you put into it. Whenever you two do something, it's for her. When you guys go out, it's her decision where you go! It's always about her, her, and HER! When will it be about you? When does she put any effort into YOU?! When will your feelings matter?”

Zane is choking up on tears but still continues, “I know you love her, but how? She is so heartless when it comes to your relationship! She doesn't care for you! Your love for her is useless to her. She is willing to throw you aside like garbage every chance she gets. She was willing to dump you the moment she heard someone else COULD have a crush on her. If she doesn't care for you now, what makes you think she’ll change? When will your love be enough for her? When will YOU be enough for her?”

All Travis can do while listening to Zane is cry. He knows what he’s saying is true, he wants to defend Katelyn, but he can’t. Travis wants to look past her flaws but they are starting to pile up, and he thinks this past accident just might be the last hope he had for their relationship gone.

Through Travis’s sniffling, he weakly shouts, “So what!” *sniff* “My relationship is ruined! And I-I can't do anything-”*sniff* “-about it. I’m just some pushover who can’t” *sniff* “do anything romantic. Look at me! I pride myself on my flirting skills and they're all bad!”

Zane looks at Travis earnestly, putting his hand on Travis’s shoulder, “Don’t say that. You are not the problem here. Your pick-up lines are great! You just need a better audience!”
“Zane, you’ve heard how bad they are! Every time I -” *sniff* “tell one, the person runs away or hits me! No one likes my pick-up lines!”
“I do!”

It was only after it was too late Zane realized what he just said. He had admitted to something he couldn’t take back.

“You do?” Travis looked up at Zane with bright eyes. His voice was so small, if he wasn't standing so close he might have missed it. And those emerald green eyes, eyes he had wished he could always get lost in. They were sparkling with such glee and anticipation, all because of him.

Zane was a goner, there was no way he could come back from this, he was in the thick of it. It was right now he knew for sure it was happening. So he braced himself and respond, “Y-yes, I find them-” Zane glopped “-quite charming”

Oh, the look on Travis’s face just killed Zane. It was like all the pain from before just washed away, turning into this almost childhood wonder. Zane thought his knees were going buckle over the utter softness in Travis’s eyes. But if he thought this was all to come, oh boy was Zane not ready for this.

“If you were a chicken, you'd be ‘im-peck-able’”

That's it. That is what killed Zane. No goodbyes are necessary, just bury him like he is. TRAVIS JUST FLIRTED WITH HIM! And Travis did it with a little smirk. Zane is in so many layers of ecstasy that his mind has breached the stratosphere. This giant teddy bear better know what's his doing with him because MY GOD HE JUST FLIRTED! WITH HIM! ZANE! ZANE RO'MEAVE!

Travis does pick-up on the steam coming out of Zane’s ears and panics a bit. He was expecting a polite no, not to break him! “H-hey! Wait! I’m sorry? Oh no, are you alright?”

“Y-yeah, yeah I’m good.” Zane barely makes out, his heart is racing.
“Well, I’m sorry? I didn’t mean to come out like that! I understand if you didn’t mean you liked it in ‘that’ way. I was just taken off guard, I just wanted to see. I’m so sorry!”
Zane quickly forces himself to focus “What? No! You don’t have to be sorry? Why should you be sorry?”

“I just- I thought-” Travis is shifting around nervously “I thought when you said you liked my pick-up lines, that there was a chance that, you-” Travis whispers to himself “- that you might like me?”

Zane just stares at Travis, his brain was completely wiped out. Zane wanted to say something, he wanted to focus! But his mind was so over the place it was impossible to.

Travis was getting more nervous, so he hurriedly spat out “That was dumb of me I know, you would never. I mean look at me? I am definitely not your type, you probably don't even swing that way. I understand, I’ll just-” With that Travis tried to run. Before that, just in the nick of time, Zane’s brain was able to keep up enough for him to grab Travis’s arm before he left. “WAIT-”

Travis looked at Zane, and the look of hope in Travis’s eyes was going to kill Zane all over again. But Zane pushed it away to finally make out, “Wait, please wait. I-I’m not good at, uh, this” Zane gestures to everything with his free hand, “but, oh how do I say this, you're right I guess?”

“Right about what?” Travis has turned to look at Zane fully, who is the shy one now.
“Everything? Well no not everything, definitely not, but the whole, me liking, well, you.” Zane only barely made out the last word, so afraid of admitting the truth he has held onto for the past 17 years.

“Really? You do like me?” Travis said like the ray of sunshine he is.
Zane was trying, but failing, to look up at Travis, “Yes, yes I do.”
“Well huh, I'm really glad I asked to speak with you now. Because this is not what I was expecting.”
Zane gave a nervous laugh, “So am I, I don't think I would have ever said what I just said if it was up to me.”

Travis looked at him confused, “What, you mean to tell me you like me?”

This man really is oblivious, huh? “Yes, you see the letter, I -well, wrote it for you.” Zane finally looked Travis in his eyes. Once the words left Zane’s mouth you could see the cogs turning in Travis’s head.

“Wait, that love letter was for me?!” Travis was genuinely shocked.
“Yeah, kinda ironic right? It seems Aphmau mixed up you and Katelyn when she was trying to figure that out.”
Travis hissed again, ”Seems so, though that kinda also stings that I thought of it in such poor light now. Did you by any chance still have the letter?”
“Yes I do, just not on me. Why?”
Travis put on a devilish smile, “I want to read it again, but this time knowing it's addressed to me!”

Zane thinks back to the draw he put it in, “I don't think that's a good idea. In all honesty, I have written better ones than that.”
“Wait, there's more?”
Oh no. “Well, you see, I - uuuuhhhh - might have, a bit more?”
Travis now has a bigger grin, “How many more?”
“Too many.”
Travis straights himself up, and with the most determined face says, “Then I’ll just read them all!”
Dread comes down Zane’s face, “No, you really shouldn't!”

Travis laughs, oh his laugh. It just makes Zane’s stomach do enough flips that it feels like a rollercoaster inside him. If only Zane could record this moment and keep it on a loop forever in his head, wouldn’t that just be wonderful?

“Well, I guess I'll be the judge of that?” Travis said while still laughing, “But you don’t need to worry, I have probably written worse ones myself! I won't be mean, I promise!”
“I know, it's just that it doesn't make them any less bad. There are some so bad, I refuse to read them myself!”

Travis stops laughing to look at Zane with this dreamy smile, “Maybe we should talk about this on another day? Tomorrow’s a Sunday, right? If you don’t got anything to do, we could go to a restaurant?”
“Yeah, that sounds nice.”
“Cool,” Travis starts to walk away backwards, “I’ll text you which restaurant tomorrow! I hope you have a nice day!” Travis then quickly walks to his car.
“Sounds good!” Zane shouts out, then in a split second he realizes what Travis was pulling and shouts louder, “heY WAIT DID YOU JUST ASK ME OUT ON A DATE?”

Zane can hear Travis laugh even more, he then raises his hand showing a peace sign, before slipping into his car and driving away. This leaves Zane speechless. 17 years, Zane has spent 17 years pining for this, precious, gentle-hearted, man; and he just asked him out on a date? Is Zanes' life finally turning for the better?

Well standing on this beach wasn’t going to solve that. Zane, still in a wave of bliss, walks to his car and drives home. He could care less about the desperate texts from his brothers, or the note on his door from Aphmau, trying to say sorry. He just calmly puts them away, and makes himself tea. Nothing was going to ruin his day, not today.

Chapter Text

That night he falls asleep happily, for the first time in a long while. Where his nightmares sewed scars deep in his heart, there is now a hand to hold. The never ending void of self-hatred, replaced with soft words. A life he once thought was doomed, now has a chance to flourish.

Zane woke up on the bear, at peace he stayed there. Zane let his mind wonder, as he never got to before without worrying about something, or thinking about Travis. But he can think of Travis now, and be happy! The whole thing still amazed him, how could Travis want to be with him? Was it just the knowledge that someone liked his pick-up lines that were so wonderful to Travis? To the point, he would want to date them?

But Zane wasn’t going to dwell on that too long, he had a date to go to! Just saying that gave Zane goosebumps! Zane practically jumped out of bed and made himself a good breakfast, which he usually never does. Most times it's just something quick, or nothing at all, but with the newly found serotonin, he made a traditional Japanese dish: warm rice, salted salmon, miso soup, and seaweed.

Zane had to go to the store to get some of the ingredients, but it was well worth it. It's stuff like this that makes him think back to the best parts of his childhood, his mom is a great chef.

Zane washed the clothes he wore yesterday, as it is the only nice outfit he has for stuff like this. Zane’s gonna have to go to the mall again if Travis wants to bring him on more dates. The thought of that doesn't sound too bad.

While the clothes are in the wash he takes another shower. This time he puts extra care into cleaning himself up. Yes, Travis has seen him on some of his worse days, but he wanted to prove to both him and Travis that he was committed and not a failure of a human being. He made sure his hair was nice and put lotion on his hands. He even painted his nails black.

While he was still waiting for the clothes to be ready, he got a text from Travis, ‘Does Core food sound good?’

Core food was this nice Mexican restaurant, Zane heard it was quaint and felt cozy. Zane had never been there since mostly only couples go there, this is due to the spacing of tables and the lights making it a pleasant romantic place to be. A perfect place for a first date, so Zane sent back, ‘It sounds great, when?’

After waiting a bit Travis comes back with, ‘just booked a table at 6. see you there!’.

All Zane could think was, ‘Oh god this is really happening!’. This dream coming true was getting better and better as time went on. For the rest of the day, Zane went around thinking of what to say, how he should greet Travis, and other little things. Anticipation was slowly nagging his brain, all he wanted was Travis, but he must wait. He must wait for a couple more minutes, which is nothing in comparison to the years he has already waited.

When it's close enough to 6, Zane booked it there. When he finally makes it, he’s 15 minutes early. So Zane texts Travis, ‘Hey, I’m there early so text me when you make it’. And 5 to 6 minutes later Zane finally gets a text back,

‘Im walking to the front right now’

Zane shot out of his car and tried his best to calmly walk towards the front entrances; he didn’t want to make it that obvious how badly he was holding it together. Zane scans the cars and it doesn't take long to find Travis. Zane then gave him a simple wave in his direction. Once Travis spots him, he lights up swiftly picking up his pace to be with his date.

“HEYA!” Travis shouts, before slowing down to walk with Zane, “It looks like we’ll have a great night!”
Zane, puzzled, “What do you mean?”
Travis pulls out a wicked grin, “Oh, you know, it’s just a lunch”
Zane was now disappointed with himself, “Did you just make a food pun?”

Travis burst out laughing, which in turn makes Zane laugh. Travis pulls himself together, “Sorry, I thought of it on the way here and I had to. I know we’re not having lunch but, eh”.
“That’s ok, it was great either way.” Zane looks up at Travis, who is astonished at Zanes' casual reaction, but in a good way.

The two make it into the restaurant and find their seats. They have a two-person window seat, with dividers on either side blocking the other tables; which makes them feel as if they have their own little place. This whole place has this nice lovely feel to it, makes you feel as if you and the people you're with are the only ones there. Zane can see why couples like it so much.

Zane and Travis take their seats, and Travis is stoked; he starts the conversation with, ”So how long have you liked my bad jokes, and how have I only known that now?”
Zane chuckles, “Well I've always liked your jokes. But I have not been the most vocal person out there, on anything really.”
“Such a shame, the amount of jokes I could have told if I knew. But that's not here nor there, so tell me a bit about yourself.”
“Well, what do you want to know?”

Travis thought for a moment, “Let's start with basic ‘get to know you’ questions, I’ll go first! If you could have a superpower what would it be?”
“I have thought about this, and without a doubt, it has to be transformation.”
“Ooooooo!”
“I mean, first I could fly, I could breathe underwater, I could be any shape I want. I could just be hot! You got everything right there!”
“You say that as if you’re not already hot.” Travis quips back

This makes Zane blush like mad, but thanks to his face mask he's able to hide it. “So, what about you?”
“Well I was going to say breathe underwater, but yours is way better!”
“Then it's my turn to ask,” Zane looked up ‘what to ask you date’ specifically for this moment, “What’s your favorite memory?”

“My favorite memory? Oh, this is a good one, hold on” Travis took some time answering this one. “I would have to guess the one time my mom took me to the aquarium. I was young, probably like, 4 to 5 ish? Anyway, it was my first time and man did it blow me away. And ever since then I have been in love with sea life.”

Zane was captured by Travis’s voice, Zane just wanted to hear him talk all day long. And it amazed him he was able to be here and ask Travis anything. Travis broke Zane out of his trance with, “So what's yours?

Zane didn’t have too many good memories, but he did have this one, “When I was younger, I liked to walk around my street and there was this one bakery. It was, and still is, run by the sweet old lady, and they sold bread and cupcakes. Since I was only a kid I didn’t have money on me usually, but I would always stop by to say hi. When I did have money, I would always buy their cupcakes. One day the old lady asked me if I could help her, I said yes, and got to work. It was fun for a little kid like me and at the end she gave me a cupcake for free. For 3 years I kept coming back and helping her and I kept getting cupcakes. And now cupcakes are my favorite dessert.”

“Wow, that's cool!”
Zane shrugged, “Sometimes just being nice can get you the best things.”

At this time they get water and order their food. Once the waiter leaves Travis turns to Zane and says, “What you said was pretty poetic, and I can say it has at least a grain of truth!”
Zane chokes a bit on his water, then starts laughing at that ridiculous pun.

Travis just looks at Zane bewildered, “Wow, you really do like my god awful-puns?”
Zane gets through his laughing, “Oh my, yes! They might be bad, that's why I love them so much. Plus the way you say them just triggers something in me; I don’t know what, but I love it!”
Travis is just looking at Zane with such fondness, he has never met someone who adamantly adores his mediocre jokes, if you can even call them that. Travis also loved Zane’s precious laugh, it's small but strong. And when Zane laughs he tends to curl up, hands weakly coming up to his face to brush away the tears of happiness. It all just took Travis’s breath away.

“I'm surprised that someone as smart as you, can find someone like me funny or even likable” Travis admits.
This statement stuns Zane, he had always thought of Travis to be way out of his league. To hear Travis share that worry, but the other way around, it was something for sure.
“Maybe you're not the most perfect person in the world, but your imperfections make you unique and wonderful, and I love that.”

Travis feels as if he was going to cry, no one has ever told him something like that. His whole life he has always sought to please others, and he never was good enough for them. But here he was, getting praised for just being himself. And there's only one way that Travis knows how to show his appreciation for this.

“The sparkle in your eye is so bright, the sun must be jealous.”
Zane’s face was redder than a tomato, “Oh come on, I’m not physically bright at all.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I must have mistaken the light reflecting off your beautiful ocean eye.”
“Do you want to kill me with your delicate words?”
“Yes,” Travis said with an enamored look on his face.

After some more pick-up lines, their food was ready. Travis got Birria Quesatacos and Zane got Pozole. It looked amazing and Zane wanted to dig right in. But that meant taking off the mask.

Before leaving home Zane knew this was going to happen, and already accepted that he'll have to show his face. It was still nerve-wracking though, he doesn't remember the last person who saw his face. This was going to happen anyways, better to rip the band-aid off now, right? With a deep breath, Zane took off his mask and gently put it to the side.

The clatter of utensils hitting the plates continued through the restaurant as the two dug into their meal. Travis was happy with his meal, and looked up from his plate to Zane to say something. Only for him to stop short, he looked at Zane’s face as Zane looked up as well.

“Hum?” Zane looked with bright eyes.
Travis was absolutely flabbergasted, “You have freckles.”

Zane immediately started blushing, but instead of giving into his instinct to hide, he forced himself to confront it. “Huh, well…, yes”
“They’re so cute!”
Zane’s in now holding back a cough, “oh, thank you”

It was impossible for Zane to not blush his heart out. All the attention Travis is giving Zane is going to make him melt. Zane couldn’t tell what was going through Travis’s head, but his face looked as if he was in wonderland. Zane tried to continue eating although Travis’s eyes never turned away.

“What”, Zane put down his spoon.
“I just can’t believe it”, Travis has forgotten his food in favor of admiring Zane’s face.
“Is it really that mind-blowing?”
“Sorry, but you're known for being this grumpy brute, but it turns out that under all your layers you just look like a kitten is too adorable.”

Zane wishes he could hide somewhere while he screams his head off.
“Why do my freckles make me look like a kitten!”
Travis laughed, amused by Zane stuttering under pressure. “They kinda remind me of whiskers, you know?” Travis moved his hands in front of his face and then moved them to the side, motioning the stroking of imaginary whiskers.

Zane was accepting his death by embarrassment and overflow of love. This was simply too much for his poor heart to take. “Well if I look like a kitten, then you look like the least threatening bear to ever exist!”

Travis is just howling in laughter, “You know what? I love that! I can totally see that!” Travis was leaning on the table, affection in his eyes. This makes Zane melt himself, laughing along with this delightful man that he adores greatly. Despite his want to leave whenever something minor goes wrong, he is fine with staying here by Travis’s side for the rest of eternity.

But everything must come to an end at some point. The rest of the night went talking back and forth; Travis saying all of his pick-up lines and puns, and Zane dying of love and laughter. It was a wonderful night, the food was great but the time they spent together was unforgettable. They couldn’t stop talking, even as Travis walked Zane to his car.

Travis was louder this night than Zane had ever heard prior. Maybe the far more relaxed environment has brought out this childish glee he didn’t have before. “If only I knew you knew how to use a rice cooker, that would have saved me so much trouble!”

Zane chuckled, “It's not that hard! You shouldn't need a biohazard suit to make rice!”
“Tell that to Dante!”

Though Zane would be a hypocrite if he said he didn’t feel that childish glee himself. Travis was just such a great story teller, Zane could get lost in his voice at any time. As they finished up their last story, clinging onto every last word, it was finally time to part.

Zane was the first to speak, “So, I think this is it then? I, um, had a good night!”. Zane was dreading this, he was worried that Travis never wanted to talk to him again after this. Though even if he does, Zane can still die happily. This was far more than he thought he could ever get, I mean a date night? Zane has been content with just watching him from afar, to be this close was a god send.

But despite Zane’s worries, Travis had other ideas. “Yeah, this was a great night. By the way, do you remember when we talked about the letters you wrote?”
Zane remembers painfully, “Yes, why?”
“I still need to see them!”

Zane now recalls Travis being stoked when he heard that he had more letters, demanding to read all of them. A bit of dread ran through Zane, some of them are really old; and all are very cringy. But there's one more important thing the letters will out him on, how long he has had this crush. All of them are dated, some just the year; others the exact date. There are a select few which he knows the exact hour and minute they were written.

“There are other things you can do with your time. You don’t need to read them. Honestly I should just burn them, why would I need-” Zane was cut off by Travis putting his hand over his mouth.

“No, no, no. Zane I don’t think you understand; I NEED to read these letters. You did write them to me, yes? So I should get the chance to see them at least.”

Zane gave Travis a look of plead, which Travis casted away without a single thought. He was going to see those letters, and he had a plan. “Are you free on Tuesday?”

Travis removed his hand so Zane could speak, “Yes, why?”
“To read the letters! I’ll just come to your house, if that's ok?”
“Oh! I, huh, fine,” Zane didn’t want this, but the cat has to get out of the bag eventually, “As much as I hate to, if you really want to read the letters; I won't stop you. But I don’t think I could stop you if I tried anyway.”

“Yay!” Travis was, as always, happy as a child who got the best present for their birthday. That is one thing Zane always loved, and admired. The way the moon shines against his warm skin and his heartfelt laugh sends shivers down Zane's spine. Being near Travis felt like movie perfect city at night. Colorful, sounds of a good time, and this feeling of magic. Zane might not be happy about it, but seeing Travis happy is always worth it.

Travis settled down, looked at Zane and smiled. It seems that Travis was determined to throw Zane for a loop, as next Travis grabbed Zane and brought him into a hug. “Thank you.”

Zane for sure short wired from that. But after a bit he hugged him back.

“You're welcome? What are you thanking me for by the way?”
Travis took a step back, hands still holding onto Zane’s shoulders, and with a smile said

“Because you have only been nice to me this whole time. I know that might not sound like much, but I’ve started to realize that whenever I go on dates with Katelyn I feel like I'm walking on eggshells. I’m always doing my best to please her and yet I seem to always do something wrong. So thanks for not doing that, and also not punching me. That's a nice change of pace.”

It hurt Zane to hear that, but it also felt gratifying to know that Travis enjoyed their time together. Maybe Travis might want to do this again? “Well that's good to hear. So, see you Tuesday?”

“Yup! How about I come at 4, I promise to not be late!” Once Zane nodded his approval; Travis walked away, with a pep in his step all the way to his car. Zane then thought of the night all over again, only to realize, “Wait did he just ask me out on another date?”

Chapter Text

The world kept moving as Zane made his way home, and promptly fell asleep into what he hoped would be a coma till Tuesday. It wasn’t, and sadly Zane had to live and do things. But unlike most days it wasn’t so bad. Most of the time Zane would have to drag himself to get things done, but he was happy. This happiness, that was no doubt due to Travis, gave him the motivation he never thought he would ever see in his lifetime.

Zane was productive, and he was satisfied with himself. Zane made sure that his house was clean and ready for when Travis was going to come over. Zane went to the store and restocked his fridge, and got plenty of snacks. Zane decided he was going to make some Nabemono for Travis. It's hard to go wrong with some good warm hotpot.

When Tuesday came around, Zane was up early. He read some texts from Aphmau, she wanted to show off some cool figure she got: which was promptly destroyed by her dog. Zane laughed at her misery, telling her better luck next time, and then made some breakfast.

It took all of Zane's willpower to take all of the letters he had stashed away, and put them downstairs and not just burn them all. He was only able to do this by forcing himself to not read a single one, and promptly walking away when the task was done. He then focused on preparing the Nabemono.

After burning some time, Zane watched the clock as time was creeping closer to 4. Zane got his pot ready as he poured in the ingredients. Zane decided to use hondashi powder, Chicken Broth, Dashi, Soy Sauce, Sake, Mirin, Kombu, mushrooms, deef, Kamaboko, cabbage, tofu, and udon noodles in his Nabemono.

After all the chopping and simmering was coming to an end Zane heard his doorbell ring; 4 o'clock. Zane rushed to the door, quickly composed himself, then opened the door to reveal Travis.

“Hope you didn’t forget about me?”
Zane looked at Travis, he looked prepared for what was in store for today. Zane wasn’t, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him “Of course not, I'm actually making some Nabemono right now. Come in, make yourself comfortable. Or as comfortable as you can get in my house, sorry I don’t get many guests other than Aphmau.”

Zane stepped back into the kitchen as Travis walked in and looked around his house, “That's totally fine. I kinda guessed you might not have guests often considering how you are. No offense!”

“No need to apologize, it’s just common knowledge how anti-social I am. Plus I very much enjoy my quiet house in comparison to Aphmau's constant stream of parties. I don’t know how she can keep up with, well, everything!”

“Aphmau’s a magician for sure, that's the only reason I could come up with anyway.”
Zane laughed, “And Aaron is a insane, but lucky man”

Travis walked into the kitchen where Zane was finishing the food, “Totally”. Travis took in the aroma being admitted by the wonderful food. “Wow, that smells awesome! You weren’t kidding about being a good cook.”

“Of course I wasn’t kidding, food is an important thing! Something I take seriously,” Zane held his chest high. There were few things Zane put a lot of time into, but cooking was definitely one of those things he cared a lot about. He was kinda giddy to have Travis try his food, he didn’t think he would dislike it; he was just always self conscious.

“It shouldn’t take long until it's ready, could you get two bowls? They're on the shelf over there, the one on the right.” Zane pointed, which Travis looked around and found. It wasn’t long till the food was ready and Zane was filling the bowls to eat.

“Here”, Zane handed Travis a bowl, “We can sit on the couch and eat”. Zane got himself a bowl and led Travis into his living room. “Sorry my house is pretty small, I don’t get paid enough to live in a big house all by myself.”

Travis cheerfully bumped Zane's arm, “Don’t worry! Honestly it’s a nice house, very cozy!”

Travis sat down and looked at the warm bowl of food in his hand. He wasn’t expecting to get any home cooked food, but he surely wasn’t going to complain about it! Travis greedily scooped up a spoonful of the Nabe into his mouth. The moment the Nabe hit Travis’s tongue he practically melted, it was soooo good. The warmth filled him up, like it surrounded him completely; cradling him in a soft embrace. Travis doesn't know how Zane did it, but this made him feel right at home.

Travis kept eagerly eating, stuffing his face full of the delicious warmth. Zane looked over “I’ll take it you like it?” Travis paused, remembering that Zane is right next to him, and swallowed what he still had in his mouth.

“Huh,... yeah. It's… really good. Like really good!” Travis looked over to Zane, “How did you learn to make this?”

“My mother taught me. My mother taught me how to make a lot of different Japanese or other Asian foods. She had a real knack for it.”
“No kidding! This is amazing! You gotta teach me some day!” Travis kept shoveling food down his mouth, “So did you find the letters?”

Zane cringed internally, “Yes, sadly” Zane ate some of the Nabe, “Though I thought we could do other things, before we look at that.”
Travis snorted, then Zane gave him the stink eye; which made Travis look away with a smirk. “I am not avoiding them just so you know. I just think it would be best to,” Zane hesitated for a moment, “Talk, or do other things. Like watching a movie or something.”
“I didn’t say anything”
“I know! I am just saying!” Zane said, aspirating. Which only made Travis chuckle some more.

Zane sighed, then kept eating hoping to change the topic. It seems that Travis wasn’t going to keep prodding Zane about the letters for now. In fact it seemed Travis was content with slurping up some food and just chatting.

“So, got anything good going on in your life?” Zane said to Travis.
“Well, huh” Travis tilted his head up for a moment, thinking briefly till he got some twinkle in his eye, “Did you hear what Dante did?”
“Oh no”
“This isn’t bad this time! Well I don’t think so yet.”

Zane knows how Dante is. He is always the person you tell stories about, and it usually doesn't end well for him. “I doubt that, but sure, go on.”
“Well I heard that he and Vylad have been spending large amounts of time together when we all go out as a group to do things, like any gatherings.”
“Oh, those two.” This has been a long standing thing.
“Wait, you know about this!” Travis was genuinely shocked.
“Of course! Vylad is my younger brother, and he has had a crush on Dante for the longest time.”
“You got to tell me everything.”

Travis has turned around so his right side is facing the back of the couch; looking at Zane with anticipation. Zane let out a confident sigh; this thing between those two have been going on for a while, and Zane was all too happy to tattle on his sibling.

“I don’t know exactly when it started, but around late high school is my guess. Vylad, although not as bad as me, isn’t a very social person. So when Vylad started to ‘hang out late’ after school you can start to see where my suspicions began.”

Zane can remember the look Vylad gave when he saw Dante passing the halls. It didn’t take long for Zane to put two and two together. Then Vylad would use the excuse of ‘studying in the library’ to instead spend his time with Dante who was, at the time, ‘perfecting’ his flirting skills. He bets that Vylad thinks he was slick and that no one noticed.

“But I didn’t interfere, it wasn't my business after all. Still this little crush didn’t seem to fade. And now Dante, as much as I hate to say, has matured somewhat and I have seen them together more and more.”
Zane leaned back into the couch, “Now I feel as though I need to say that I’m still not sure how I feel about Dante dating my brother,”

Travis nodded, “As anyone should”.
Zane dramatically looked at Travis “I don’t understand how Dante and you are friends, let alone best friends”.

Travis laughed, shaking his head “You know, he aint that bad. He’s a little of a dunce at times, in more ways than one, but he is a good friend. That is if he isn’t nagging you all the time.”

That was a direct jab at how Dante for some reason always picks on Zane. Mainly because he’s emo, Dante isn’t the brightest even when it comes to insults.

“You don’t need to tell me. I’ve been dealing with this since highschool, it will never end.”
Travis finished his bowl with stupid smile. “What other things have been haunting you since highschool?”

Zane didn’t need to think hard about that. There were so many things Zane simply couldn’t let go. There were times when he forgot his schedule, or just went to the wrong room. All the times he tried to become ‘one of the cool kids’ or any time he was forced to do any gym thing, and many, MANY, more. But he couldn’t ignore the shame he stashed behind a corner in his house for any longer.

With a deep sigh, Zane finally gave in. “Well there's this”. Zane stood up, taking the now empty bowls and putting them on the counter to clean later. Zane then walked away out of Travis' current line of sight. Travis was unsure what Zane was doing, moving his head to look down the hallway without moving from his current position.

Zane came back quickly with a HUGE stack of papers. “Since you've been bugging me about it for so long, here it is! Every letter that I have saved that I ‘wrote to you’”.

Travis was bewildered. He knew there was more, but it didn’t click in his brain how much more. There were hundreds and hundreds of pieces of paper and he didn’t know where to begin.

When Travis started to thumb through the letters, one thing popped out immediately. The dates. They were all dated, and the farther back he looked; the older the letters were. Travis stopped at one particularly bad looking letter, if the date was true this was written 14 years ago. This would mean Zane wrote this when he was 18, just finishing high school and getting ready for college.

“This can’t be real.” Travis looked up at the embarrassed Zane, “Theis dates can’t be real. This means you wrote this 14 years ago?!”
Zane shook his head, “No, they're real. The dates are all right.”

Travis took a moment to process what this meant. “So you have been writing these fake love letters to me since you were 18?!”
“15”
“SINCE YOU WERE 15!”

Zane was ashamed to omit, but nodded. “I didn’t think my crush on you would stay but after 17 years I still couldn’t get you off my mind.”

Travis was just stunned. Travis thought about all the times he interacted with Zane. He doesn't remember talking to Zane too much in highschool, only the few times he hung out with Garroth and the others. He must have seen at least one of his swim competitions; probably cheering for him in the back where no one could see him.

Did he hear all of the corny puns and pick-up lines he has ever told? Did Zane witness every failure that led to Katelyn punching him? Every party Zane was dragged to, the weird sleepover we for some reason had, every time he visited Garroth when he was roommates with him. Every time Travis was with Zane, Zane had a huge crush on him and he had no idea.

Despite being the so-called romantic one, this was on another level. Travis has never been in love like THIS before, and for Zane to be the one this madly in love is wild. “Why didn’t you say something sooner?”

“Why in the world would I?!” Zane got worked up rapidly, “You were always chasing the hot girls of the school and were the captain of the swimming team! I had NO shot! Look at me Travis, you know how pathetic I was back then. My desperate attempts to become one of the Shadow Knights, my high pitched squeaky voice, I was so bad at everything I did I wouldn’t be able to walk straight if my life depended on it!”

Travis put a hand on Zane’s shoulder, “You aren't like that anymore though”.
“And that's why you know now. Don’t forget you were dating Katelyn to the point you thought you were going to marry her until recently.”

Travis had to think for a moment. Zane was right, he had gotten so caught up on getting the prettiest girls he could find; how could someone think he was interested in anything else. This also made him sad. He’s in his 30’s now and he was still chasing those young teenage dreams to the point he might have forgotten to think about what his own tastes are.

Travis took a good look at Zane. Although he comes off a bit timid he can be pretty headstrong. He knows what he wants but also knows when it's best to stay silent. He is a passionate, and loyal person. Compared to everyone else around him he’s the one calm soul where everyone else insists on gossip or petty drama. He’s respectable and kind, he’s childish in a fun cute way; yet still serious when needed. To Travis, Zane seems to be this anchor that knows what he is. And that was something Travis never realized he wanted, but now feels like something he always needed.

Travis put his other hand on Zane’s shoulder and pulled him in close. Zane was surprised by the hug, his mind was running all over the place trying to figure out what Travis was thinking. After a second of shock, Zane snapped back into reality and wrapped his arms around Travis’s torso.

So here is Zane, on his couch hugging the person he thought would never love him back. Someone he had just shared his most precious secret he has been keeping to himself for so long. Zane felt hot water around his eyes as he hugged harder. All the feelings of inadequacy, helplessness, and all his shortcomings just melted away.

“I can’t believe it.”
Travis moved his head up a bit, still unable to see because of the death grip Zane has on him, “Can’t believe what?”
Zane dug his face into Travis' neck, “That you would want to do this. That you would willingly hug me.”
“Well of course I would, you are a bank loan right?” Travis said with a smirk.

Zane blinked away his tiers in confusion, “What?”
Travis leaned into Zane some more, “Because you got all of my interest.”
“You!” Zane bursted into laughter.

He couldn’t believe it more now. Travis was just too much for his poor heart, but he didn’t care. He continued laughing into Travis soft arms as Travis cradled him. Travis buried his face into Zane’s ebony hair, snickering all the while.

“You got me with another pick-up line, my god.” Zane was wiping away his tears.
“OH, I got some more if you like~?”
“Oh no, oh no.”

Travis scooped Zane up, now hugging him so tightly he couldn’t escape, “Are you a time traveler? Cause I see you in my future!”
“Oh no! Oh-HAHAHAH!!!”
“Somebody better call God, because she’s missing an angel.”

Zane was just crackling so much, “Please, this - hahAHA - my stomach hurts!”
Travis, satisfied, lets Zane roll onto the couch to get it out of his system. Once he is done, Zane looks up at Travis, “You are going to kill me like this.”

“Oh? Are you going to need CPR? Because I can help with that~.”
Zane weakly swatted at Travis, “NO! Stop being so charming!”

Zane sat up, breathing heavily, “So you going to read the letters or what?”
“Of course I am!”

Travis eagerly packed up one of the letters reading it quickly. It was bad, obviously, but that made it more delightful. Zane was trying his best to not shrivel in embarrassment the more Travis read. Travis had some commentary on choice words or phrases; suggesting somehow even worse options. It took a good couple of hours to just get through some of the letters as Travis took at least 10 minutes for each. Or an entire hour for this one specifically bad letter.

By the time it was starting to become midnight, they had read about ¼ of the pile. This is where Zane decided to pump the brakes and call it done for tonight.
“They're not going anywhere. If you want to read more they’ll still be here.”
“But I need to read more! These are top notch!”
“You can call these letters a lot of things, but you can not call them good!”
“I didn’t say they’re good! I just said they’re entertaining!”

Zane attempted to organize them back to how they were before. “If you want something entertaining, you can put on a movie while I put this away. I got netflix.”
“What do you want to watch?” Travis called out as Zane started to walk away.
“Whatever, just make sure it's good.”

Zane went to his room. He looked around until he spotted the now open drawer, where the letters had spent the last couple of years collecting dust. It felt weird to see it empty. What felt weirder was that he was ok with it. He no longer looked at the letters as failed potential, but now years of work leading up to what is so far the best day of his life. He put them back, closing the drawer and walked back down stairs.

Zane collected some spare blankets he had and went to where he left Travis. He seems to have picked a movie, but has it paused on the black starting screen. “Found something?”

Travis looks over the top of the couch to spot Zane, “Yup! Come sit and I’ll start it!”
“Ok, here are some blankets,” Zane throws them onto Travis, “Let me get some quick snacks.”

Zane promptly goes into the kitchen and comes back after raiding his pantry. Travis has organized the blankets so that when he joins, they will be cocooned within the warm fabric together.

“I don’t have popcorn but I got this.” Zane dumps the stack of snacks on the table in front of the couch, then proceeds to crawl into the cocoon. Once in, Zane leans on Travis; which Travis happily takes as an opportunity to wrap his arm around Zane.

“What are we watching?”
“A movie I heard a lot of hype about. It should be good!” Travis then pressed play.

Zane didn’t pay too much attention to the movie, he was more focused on the snacks and the whole leaning on Travis part. What he did catch about the movie was it was a comedy romance movie. He should have guessed Travis would want to watch something like this.

As the movie progressed, the two leaned more and more into each other. They were also more sleepy. After about the 3rd quarter of the movie Travis whispered to Zane, “Thanks for the good night.”
Zane somewhat tilted his head towards Travis, “Of course, and thank you. I'm not sure how you feel about me, but I’m glad all of this happened.”

Travis moved some to get a better look at Zane, who also turned to look at Travis completely. Travis stared at Zane for a bit, deciding something. Travis then puts a hand on Zane’s face, right where his mask is. They stayed like that a bit, edging just a little closer to each other.

“Well, how about this?” Taking a firm grasp on the mask, Travis slowly pulls it down. Zane didn’t object, he just stared into Travis’s vibrant green eyes. Every second that Travis pulled down the mask, Zane felt his breath become more heavy. Soon the mask draped around Zane’s neck, revealing his face.

Travis lightly placed his fingers on Zanes jaw, cupping his face and dragging it just a little closer. Zane felt his hands travel up Travis torso as he softly grasped the fabric of his shirt. The distance between them grows smaller; till they can feel the breath of the other on each other's face. With one more pull from Travis’s hand, the two finally connected. Lips gently intertwined with each other.

This was a completely new experience for Zane, but he took it greedily. Zane’s hands rose up to Travis’s neck as Travis cupped Zane’s face closer to his. Travis' lips felt slightly hard against Zanes’ soft one, they were warm and confident too. The pressure of Travis lips and intimacy of it all made Zane feel as if there was soft lava flowing through his veins.

This was all Zane could have ever wanted and more. He never wanted to let go, all he wants is to be consumed by desire and passion and stay here forever. Eventually the two had to detach from each other for air, but it was slow and drawn out. Both clinging for every last drop of warmth.

Their mouths were only centimeters apart. Their foreheads and noses were still stuck together, breathing heavily as they clanged onto each other. Travis, in his softest voice, “Does that answer your question?”

The corner of Zane’s mouth twitched up into a slight smile, “Somewhat, yeah.”

The two stayed there, wrapped in warm blankets as the forgotten movie played in the distance. Soon they fell asleep in each other's arms, content as they could ever be.

When the morning sun raised, they were still asleep. It took until mid afternoon for the pair to finally wake. Zane was the first, laying on Travis’s chest as a pillow. He tried to pretend to be asleep for some more just to stay like that. Travis woke not too long after though, and upon seeing the ‘sleeping’ Zane on him, he started to play with his hair.

Zane, still in his groggy state, was loving it. “You are gonna make it even harder for me to get up like this.”
“Of course. I got to keep you trapped here somehow,” Travis snidely said.

After digging his face into Travis’s chest one more time, Zane got up.
“Well I sadly have to go to the bathroom, and I’m hungry. So cuddle time has to end.”
Travis booed as Zane made his way to the bathroom.

Chapter Text

It took no time before they were both in the kitchen. Zane was making pancakes as Travis helped.
“It's not ready to flip,” Zane was looking over at Travis trying his best.
“How do you know when it’s ready?” Travis was looking desperate.
Zane pointed to the top of the pancake, “When you clearly see bubbles form and they pop. Anything before that and that’s too early.”

Zane now has decided to take up the task of teaching Travis how to cook. He’s not bad at cooking, he just hasn’t tried to achieve more than the basics.
“So is it ready now?”

Zane looked at the pancake, then nodded. Travis, with all of his might, tried and failed at flipping the pancake. After laughing at Travis' disappointment, Zane took the pan and flipped it with no trouble.
“How”
Zane patted Travis on the back, “With practice”.

After some more tries, and failed flips, they had pancakes.
“Cooking is hard,” Travis said as he took the syrup out of the fridge.
“And as I said,” Zane took his plate and sat down, ”It takes practice. I wasn’t born a master chef out of the womb. It took years of burning my hands to get anywhere.”

Travis sighed in defeat. They sat on the couch they slept on and started eating.
“Why don’t you have a proper dinner table? If you don’t mind me asking.”
Zane annoyingly sighed out, “Garroth broke it”
Travis choked a bit on his food, “Really? How?”

“By being way too energetic! Sadly I didn’t see what led up to it, I was in my bedroom when it all went down. One moment I heard Garroth open the door, yelling about something, then next a huge crash. By the time I made it down, he had broken the table into two and was in pain. He said he’ll get me a new one, but that's gonna take a bit.”

“Has he always been this destructive?”
“Yes.” Zane could barely remember if Garroth was grounded or not growing up because he always was for destroying some piece of furniture.

“But I live alone now, so I don’t have to deal with that. Or for the most part at least.”
Travis chuckled, he was leaning into Zane who happily leaned right back.
“Travis, I do got to ask one thing.”
Travis looked at Zane, stuffing his face with some pancake, “What?”

Zane shifted in his spot, he poked at a piece of pancake he had cut off, “What ... is our relationship?” Zane had tilled his head to look Travis in the face.
Travis swallowed the food he had in his mouth, “Oh, yeah. That.” Travis then leaned back, taking in all that had happened in the last month. “Well, what do you want it to be?”

Zane already knew that answer, “Well,... it's just, friendly neighbors don't … do what we did last night. And based on what we were talking about, I thought…” Zane was no longer able to look at Travis, speaking in an almost non-audible voice, “That we could be something… more” It was hard to even hear the last word Zane said, but Travis didn’t need to to know what he was talking about.

Travis stretched his arm up and over Zane’s shoulder, pulling him into his chest. “You know you can just ask to be my boyfriend, right?”
Zane’s face went bright red, “Well! I … umm…!”
Travis laughed, he then kissed Zane’s head, “And to answer that, I would like to be your boyfriend if you're ok with that?”
Zane was basically just a ball of red embarrassment, “I… um…, yes please”

Travis' laughter keeped the air filled; that by the time he left, the house felt dead silent. Only to be interrupted by Zane doing a victory dance around his house. It happened! It Finally happened! Zane can confidently, and correctly, say that Travis is his boyfriend! Zane could feel he was going to ride this high for a long time, but first he has to clean his house.

Zane and Travis have been texting each other constantly now. No matter what Zane was doing, he would always drop anything if his phone buzzed. It seems as though while this was happening, something else was brewing. This time not for bad.

It was one of those times when Zane’s phone buzzed and he expected to be Travis. Only to be disappointed when it showed up that Aphmau had texted him. She wanted to meet up with him in person. The last time they saw each other face to face was when that disaster happened.

However they have been texting since and he could tell she really was sorry for what happened. He did want to make amends with his best friend, and if it wasn’t for her he wouldn’t have Travis as his boyfriend now anyway. Zane decided he was going to meet her and talk things out, which made her happy. She then said she was bringing everyone else so they could also apologize.

Zane was fine with this, she sent the date of the meeting and now it was only a matter of time. Zane would learn through Travis that he was invited too. Good, Zane didn’t want another mess simply because they wanted to exclude someone again.

In Aphmau fashion, Aphmau made this meeting somewhat a little party. She made sure to have snacks and cleaned up her house for the guests. Although Zane usually would come early to these kinds of events, he was purposely late for this. He wanted everyone to be there before his presence made things awkward.

And like he predicted, the moment he stepped into the house it turned dead silent. Everyone either tried to look away, or awkwardly smiled at him.

Aphmau then came in, desperately trying to keep things cheery, “ZANE! You finally came! We got cupcakes! I know you love cupcakes!” Aphmau then grabbed Zane’s arm, “Come! They’re over here!”

Once Zane was being pulled away towards one of the tables, the talking started again. This time it was about Zane, and despite them whispering to each other Zane could still hear it. Zane did take a cupcake, turning around and watched as everyone squirmed where they were standing.

Zane sighed, “Ok, lay it on me. What.”
Aphmau was the first to crack, “You know we didn’t mean for any harm. We were only trying to help.”
“Ok, then why did you steal my letter; which you knew you had no business with?”
“Because you don’t tell us anything! Any time someone tries to talk about your personal life you hightail it!”
“Because it's MY personal life! I’m an adult! I don’t need you barking up my tree because you want to!”

Garroth piped in, “But we want to because we care about you! I know life has been hard on you Zane, but we can help you if you let us!”
“Help? You call that mess that you did to set me up with Katelyn, help?”
Garroth put up his hands, “Ok, we made a few miscalculations.”
“A few?!?!” Zane is getting frustrated, and fast.

This is when Travis decided to interject, “HEY, everyone calm down! This is not the time to interrogate Zane! This is how we got into this mess the first time.”

Both Aphmau and Garroth back off, they knew Travis is right. Aphmau recomposed herself, “Sorry, I just got caught up in all of this. I should have asked you about the letter when I found it. I thought I was gonna be a good friend, and I ended up messing everything up.”

“You could have at least not do the whole setting me on a date without my knowledge too.” Zane could tell they had rehearsed what they were going to say ahead of time. This is when Zane looked over to where Katelyn was sitting. She looked uncomfortable, she clearly had something to say but didn’t want to. So Zane decided to target her to get it out.

“So what about you? I know you’re smart Katelyn, why did you agree to any of this?”

Katelyn turned her head in the direction of Zane, but was unable to look directly at him, “Because Aphmau made some good points, ok? She thought you were in love with me with a 100% guarantee. I thought you would be a better boyfriend then Travis, but I guess I’ll just settle for him.”

This piqued Travis' interest, “Settle?!”
Katelyn waves her hand dismissively at Travis, “Yes, come on. You know Zane is less annoying than you, plus he does not say those obnoxious pick-up lines.”

Everyone gave a nervous chuckle at that, except for Zane and Travis. Once everyone looked at Travis they stopped. Travis was done. He had been the end of her punchlines and jokes for far too long. “No I don’t know! One day you dump me for someone who MIGHT like you, then when you realize they don’t you decide to ‘settle’ for me?!”

Katelyn turned around to look at him, “Yeah, and? Why are you so worked up now? Last time I did something like this, you jumped up in joy to know I still wanted to be with you.”
“BECAUSE I’M DONE!” Travis was holding back tears, “I tried my best for you! I did whatever you wanted! But you still will throw away all of my love for you at the slightest inclination of anything!”

Everyone was stunned. Travis never yells, and he especially never yells at Katelyn. It took Katelyn a couple of seconds to process what had happened. She however, got riled back up again, “You call all of these pick-up lines, which you know I hate, your best?”

This put Travis in a frenzy he didn’t even know he had, “YES! And you want to know why? Because I love them! Just how I love to be on the swim team or my favorite food! Or any of my friends that happen to not be your friends, or the multitude of other things that I like, that you for some reason must hate!”

Travis was getting drastic, waving his hands everywhere as he spoke, “Because I can’t like the things I like to you for some reason! No matter what I ask you, it’s ‘too much’, but when it’s about me I must conform to what you want! I tried Katelyn, I have tried for so long, but I can’t anymore.”

Katelyn was at the brink of crying, “Can’t what?!”
“I can’t be with you! You have been the worst person to ever date!”
“So you’re breaking up with me?!”
“Yes! A hundred times, YES!”

Katelyn moved in an instinct, she was getting up to Travis face. Travis backed off instinctually, ready for what he knew was coming. Katelyn grabbed the cuff of Travis’ coller, pulled back her arm and- “STOP”

The house was dead silent. Katelyn had stopped her punch mid way to look around. Everyone was still in a shocked stun, but stood in the middle of the room was Zane. His own fist has formed a ball as he stared at Katelyn with fury. “Stop right now”

Katelyn looked at Zane then backed at Travis then back at Zane one more time. She then let go of Travis, who walked backwards to not be in her reach. She said nothing as she sat back down; not looking at anybody. Zane calmed down a bit, but everyone else was still very tense.

Zane expected that no one saw this coming, as he didn’t either. The silence was uncomfortable, nobody wanted to be the one to break it. It was Aphmau, in her grace to save the night, who was the one who spoke first, “I think I got some more food in the kitchen, let me get it!”

The small, quiet talk slowly came back. This time with unsure voices, it was as if one wrong word would break the fabric of this whole house. Katelyn nor Travis pertaked in any conversation, nor did anyone want to talk to them right now. Zane went back to the table he was at before, and went ahead and ate his cupcake.

Aphmau did come back with some more food, and tried to pass some around with her best smile. This was a disaster.

Slowly people, one by one, came over to Zane and apologized for their involvement in the plan. They were all short, just a sorry or couple of words, but Zane didn’t care to pester on this. After a while the only person who didn’t come up to Zane was Travis. He was still in his heated bubble, and Aphmau saw.

Aphmau silently went over to Travis, bumping his shoulder.
Travis looked at her, annoyed he said “What?”
Aphmau leaned to Travis in a hush voice, “You should go up to Zane and apologize.”
“For what?” Travis gave her an eyebrow raise.

“When you confronted Zane in the mall you yelled at him and made a scene! Don’t think I wouldn’t find that out! Plus this outburst tonight was a bit uncalled for.”
“Uncalled for?!” Travis was offended, “I was the uncalled for one?!”
“Hush!” Aphmau was trying to keep people from staring and listening into their conversation.

She was failing. “Yes and no. Katelyn was definitely in the wrong, but this is not the time for more yelling. Plus my first point still stands.”
Travis was still annoyed, but could see where she was coming from. She didn’t know about their meeting after the accident, so he looked kinda bad right now. That is when Travis got an idea

Travis departed from where he and Aphmau stood and walked up to Zane. Zane was still leaning against the table, clearly listening into the conversation he just had with Aphmau. Travis joined him, “Tough day, huh?”

Zane huffed, nodding his head, “So what are you going to say?”. Zane looked actually interested to hear this.

“Well I might have done a oppies doies fucky wucky at the mall awhile back.”
Zane braked a chuckle, but swiftly recomposed himself, “You don’t say.”
Travis smirked. He was gaining his happy-go-lucky personality back, “Yes I do. Also calling you a ‘profligate’ was an oppy woopy skitel-me-do.”

Garroth spit out some of his drink, “You called my brother a pro-fo-WHAT?!”
Zane was barely holding his laughter. Travis, dumbly remembering that he was not alone, turned to Garroth and said, “Oh! Yeah, I, um, called him a profligate when in my outburst at him in the mall.” Travis had a hand behind his head giving the most ‘I’m so sorry’ face to a VERY angry Garroth.

“Why in the WORLD did you call my little brother that!? You are such a litt-!”
“I accept your apology.” Zane interrupted his brother.

That surprised everyone. It surprised Vylad especially since he knows Zane hates when people joke around in serious situations. Vylad stepped closer, “You what?”

“I accept his apology. He also did kind of apologized before, so it’s fine.”

Vylad was puzzled, “He already apologized? When?”
Zane shrugged, “A couple weeks ago, why?”
Garroth came back from his shock, “Wait, Travis, have you been hanging out with Zane without any of our knowledge?”

Travis was confused about the reply, “Yeah, I guess? I don’t know why you would say it like a father talking about their kid though.”
“That’s because we’re talking about Zane! He doesn't just go and hang out with people!” Garroth turns towards Zane, “Were you ok? What did you two do? I hope you didn’t stay up too late, you know you need to sleep?”

Zane put a hand up in front of Garroth, “Ok, you need to back up. You really are starting to sound like a father with that kind of talk, and not in a good way.”
“I just want you to know you don’t have to do anything you're not comfortable with!”
“Of course I know that! Also the reason why we're here is because you forced me to do something I wasn’t comfortable with! You also did it without my knowledge or consent!”

Garroth realized what verbal corner he put himself in, “That's not what I meant-”
“I know what you meant, and it’s because the person you were setting me up with was a woman. But because Travis is a man, he is for some reason dangerous! Not to mention the fact that you personally know Travis, and you know he’s a good guy.”

Everyone was looking at Garroth knowing he just outed himself as a huge hypocrite. Garroth meanwhile was doing an impression of a fish out of water, “Well, I, you know, thaaaatssss, not, nooo! I mean, why, I would never!”

Zane was done with all this bullshit, “That is what you meant, and I know that because you have been like this my whole life. You always tried to hook me up with someone but once some guy comes up to me or tries to talk to me, you freak out. I’m an adult now though, so let this overprotective thing you're doing go!”

Garroth gave up, he was just being overprotective; there was no way around it. “Ok, but you promise to tell me if you ever need help ok?”
“Garroth, I think I promised you that a least a hundred times by now.”
The answer was yes, yes he has. This was the same line Garroth always gave Zane when he realized he messed up and went overboard. Nevertheless, Zane would always say yes.

Garroth hung his head low, “Sorry, I know. The problem is I know you want to date somebody, but you never go out enough to meet someone you might like.”

Zane paused, he got into a thinking pose determining what to say next. He could go for the same thing he always does, brush it off and tell Garroth to get off his back. That would lead to another mess like the one they just got into though. After a bit of consideration, Zane decided to tell the whole truth.

“Just so you know I had at one point tried to date people using dating websites and other stuff.”

“You WHAT!” Everyone chanted.
After Zane recovered from his ears getting blasted he said, “Yeah? What? Do you think I’m that pathetic?”

“Yes” said Dante, who then got an elbow to the stomach from Vylad.
Garroth ignored Dante, “You actually went on a dating website? When?”
“That was a while ago, as you can probably guess it was never gonna work out.”
Vylad, who had his hand over Dante’s mouth, cheerfully said, “But you tried!”
Garroth was perplexed, “Why didn’t you tell us sooner?”

“Because this!” Zane gestured to the whole room, “Is how you act when I do anything you don’t expect! I also said it was never going to work, so I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
Garroth shrugged, “Fair, but did you learn something from it at least?”

This was going to be hard for Zane to say, but he is going to have to do it eventually. ‘Better to deal with it now then later’ Zane told himself. “Yes actually. So you know the letter which sparked this mess?”

Everyone gave each other confused looks, but nodded.
“Well the reason I freaked as much as I did was because there were actually more letters.”
“More?” Aphmau was shocked. She had been in Zane’s room more than anyone else, how had she not known about this?
“Yes, I hid them away as well as I could. I know you loved to snoop, but I also know how you do it. That's not the point though, the point is I knew I had a crush on somebody. You finding one out only brought it into the limelight.”

Aphmau got nervous, “Don’t tell me I messed something up even more!”
“No” Zane quickly reassured her, “But the person who it was for ended up seeing the letter you stole.”

Aphmau was starting to connect the dots, “So the letter WAS for someone we know?”
Zane nodded his head, “Yes, they didn’t know it was for them. I could have easily lied and pretend it wasn’t for them, but I didn’t.”
“Wait, did you-?” Garroth, along with everyone else, was looking at Zane with anticipation.

“Yes, yes I did.”
“OMG!” Aphmau was crying in joy
Garroth ran over and picked up Zane, “I’m so proud of you!”
“You’re crushing my bones!” Zane struggled out.

Everyone else clapped for Zane, especially Kawaii-Chan who was excited to have a new ship.

Garroth let go of Zane, letting him breathe air again. “You HAVE to tell us who it is!” Garroth said, patting Zane’s back.
“Ok, I will, but first you all got to promise me something. You can’t freak out, got it?”
Garroth eagerly agreed, and so did the others in the room.

Zane straightened himself up, then positioned himself to face everybody. He took one look at Travis who gave him a reassuring nod.

“The person I wrote those letters to, the person who I have had a crush on, was none other than Travis.”

“WHAT!”

Character 8

Zane wasn’t sure who yelled the loudest, Garroth, Aphmau or Katelyn. Either way, they all had their jaws on the floor. They desperately looked at Travis to see if this was some joke or something, but nope! Travis confirmed that Zane was telling the truth.

Garroth shook his head, “No, no, no! You - it can’t be! Why Travis?”
Zane stood his ground, “For many reasons, but I don’t have to tell you. Besides, I told you to not freak out”
“But it’s Travis!” Garroth drastically waved his arms in Travis’s direction
“And?” Zane looked sternly at Garroth.

Katelyn popped in, “And it’s Travis!”
Zane turned his attention to her, “And you’re biased!”
Katelyn huffed, “Ok, maybe I am, but it doesn't take a genius to know dating Travis is a bad idea!”

Travis put his arms in the air, “I am right here!”
“I don’t care!” Katelyn hissed out, “You are the most annoying person I have ever met, why Zane picked you over me is insane!”
“Because you are a terrible partner that's why!” Zane shouted.

Zane kept going, “All you ever did in your relationship with him is put him down! You were self-centered and abusive! Even if you don’t like his pick-up lines, it doesn't mean you can punch him! You have never done even one nice thing for him the entire time you dated him! Travis tried his best for you, and you threw it away like it was nothing!”

Zane was getting so heated he was panting now. He looked up at Katelyn who stood there in shock. She had never been talked to in that way before. She was about to bark something back when she stopped herself to look around, and saw all the disapproving looks everyone was giving her. She had stepped a line, and Zane wasn’t going to let her go without some explanation for her actions.

She looked at Travis, “Was I really that bad?”
“Yes, I tried to tell you so many times, but you would never listen. I don’t know how, but somewhere along you must have thought that you could do no wrong. Well you were wrong. I don’t think I can forgive you for a long time now.” Travis said with a heavy heart.

Katelyn kept looking around and the disapproving looks didn’t fade. He was right, they were right. Katelyn was wrong. With that realization, Katelyn picked up her stuff, and walked out of the house. She didn’t say a single word as she left.

Garroth looked over to see Zane furious. His brother never got this angry unless it was something he cared deeply about. This seemed to have clicked something in Garroth’s brain. “Zane?”

Zane looked over to Garroth, “Yeah?”
“Are you happy?” Garroth said in his most honest voice.
“Happy about what?” Zane was puzzled.
“About your decision to love Travis.”

Zane thought back to when he first fell in love with Travis. When he admitted his feelings to Travis and his reaction. The dinner date night which led to the next date. The most tender and loving kiss he could have asked for, and so, SO, many pick-up lines.

“Yes, desperately so.”

There was some silence. Garroth knew it was best to swallow his pride this one time.

Garroth forced a smile, “Then I’m happy for you. Even if it is with Travis, as long as you're happy, I’m happy for you.”
After a bit they heard a, “Me too” from Aphmau. “You always know when you’re right, so who am I to judge now? Plus it turns out I’m not the one who should decide on what's a good relationship anyway.”

“Honestly I don’t care who it is,” Vylad remarked, “I just can’t believe you found someone! In a good way, I’m excited for you!”
Dante took advantage of not having his mouth covered, “I have no clue why anyone would want to date Travis of people, no offense-” Travis gave him the ‘bro?’ look, “-but all the power to you I guess.”

The other people in the room also ended up giving some of their support, with Kawaii-Chan who had her phone out ready to take some pictures.

Zane smiled, and even through his mask it was easy to tell. “Thank you, really. I’m glad you guys are cool with this especially since we are already dating.”

This was a blow to Garroth, but he kept strong. He was determined to support his brother, no matter what. Garroth went over to Travis, “If you hurt him, or break his heart, I will kill you in the worst way possible.”

“I already guessed so,” Travis said with his iconic dumb smile.

Zane shooed his brother away from his boyfriend, only to get tackle-hugged by Aphmau. She was jumping up and down rambling on about how happy she is and other stuff. All of this seemed to put everyone in a good mood, as the party was finally able to relax.

People started to freely talk, some asked about Zane and Travis' relationship; but they refused to give anything more than what they already said. The only other thing they mentioned was that they decided to date each other only very recently. This seemed to please Garroth a bit, he was happy to know he wasn’t really being kept out of the loop on things going on in Zane’s life.

After some time, Zane and Travis were sitting on the couch. Zane was eating another cupcake while he leaned on Travis. Travis had his arm wrapped around Zane, happily resting his head on Zane’s. “This is not how I thought this night was going to end.” Travis said to Zane.

“Tell me about it,” Zane responded.
“I am mostly surprised that Garoth didn’t threaten me more.”
“Trust me, he would have if I wasn’t right there watching him.”

They both heard more shouting from the table where people were playing board games. It was getting hated as they were trying to find the rules of the game as they argued about it the whole way. They both decided it was more fun to watch them suffer than to join.

Zane finished his cupcake, crumpling the wrapper in his hand. “We had a long night, I kinda want to go home.”
Travis hugged Zane closer, “I feel ya. Can I come with you?”
“Oh, please do. I think I would have dragged you with me anyways.”

Travis smirked, getting up and throwing away any of his trash. Zane did the same. Once done, Zane took Travis’ hand as he walked out of the house before the board of the board game got thrown somewhere.

With each step, the more distant the sounds of either triumphant victory or tremendous defeat got distant. Side by side with the one he loves, Zane walked home happy as can be. Once they made it to Zane’s house, they both wandered into his bedroom. Zane changed into his usual sleep wear, an old tee and sweats. Zane gave Travis the biggest pair of sweatpants he had, which was pretty big since Zane likes to buy oversized clothing for himself.

Before anything happened though, Travis spotted something. “Who is this guy?”
Zane turned to see Travis holding the white bear Zane almost forgot about.
“OH! Him! Yes, I got him at the mall. The one where you yelled at me actually.”
“Oh! What fun times,” Travis said sarcastically.

Zane laughed, “Yes, yes. If you couldn’t tell, I got him because he reminded me of you.”
“Is that why you called me a bear on our first date?”
Zane nodded, patting the big stuffed bear on the head.

“I just got one more thing to ask.”
“Hm?” Zane was heading towards the bed.
“Why does he look so dumb?”

Zane sneered, “Don’t ask questions you don't want the answer to!~”
“What? What does- HEY wait!”
Zane giggled as Travis hastily tackled Zane in a soft hug.

They both got into the bed, Travis laying face up as Zane laid his head on Travis’ chest. Travis draped the blanket over them, “You know, I can get used to this.” Travis muttered.
“What? Me using you like a pillow?”

Travis chuckled, “I mean yes, but I was talking about me holding and cuddling you all the time.”
“Hey, I’m not arguing,” Zane snuggled in closer to Travis.
Travis hugged Zane closer, he then started to use one of his hands to comb through Zane’s hair. “You know people say Disneyland is the happiest place on earth. Well they apparently never met you.”
“Hey, I’m trying to sleep over here!” Zane jokingly remarked.

Zane did go to sleep eventually, after a couple more pick-up lines that is. Zane went to sleep thinking about the possible future. It for once looked bright, and he could see it would not end anytime soon. Maybe he might get married, he might get a big house and fill it with pets and/or kids. He had no idea, but he did know one thing. As long as he had Travis by his side, it was all going to end up alright.