Lukas was Matthias' best friend. They'd gone to school together since seventh grade, and now in junior year they had almost all their classes together, except math, because Lukas was a year advanced.

They sat next to each other at lunch every day- Tino and Berwald sat with them sometimes, but not as predictably.

You know when you're friends with someone to the point that their family is practically yours, too? Matthias would go over to Lukas' house and mess around with Emil, greeting Lukas' mom as his own.

That's what they did today. Matt followed Lukas inside his front door and kicked his shoes off.

"I'm home, mom," Lukas called, starting to go up the stairs.

"I'm here, too!" Matt called after him.

"Are you two going to work on homework?"

"Yeah."

Matt dropped his backpack onto the ground just inside Lukas' bedroom. Lukas dropped his onto his bed and sat beside it. Matthias grinned and jumped onto the ed, laying his head onto Lukas' lap, grinning.

"Pet my hair," Matthias demanded with his infuriating smile, grabbing Lukas' hand and placing it on his hair.

"What homework do we actually plan to get done tonight?"

Matt scoffed. "I don't wanna do homework."

Lukas rolled his eyes again.

"We have to at least do our reading." He unzipped his backpack and pulled out Othello. He pushed Matt's head off his lap and laid down on his pillow, his book open beside his head so he could read laying down.

Matthias sat up and watched Lukas, pouting a little at the loss of contact. Sometimes, Lukas would let him cuddle and kiss for hours without protesting. Other times, however, Lukas would recoil on himself and not let Matthias touch him at all. He was like a cat.

Of course, these were only options when they were alone in one of their rooms.

"Well, come here, idiot."

Matthias raised his brow, but didn't argue as he snuggled up behind Lukas putting on arm forward under Lukas' head and the other gently on his stomach.

Lukas was wearing a t-shirt and a sweater, so it was warm and less than ideal for cuddling, but Matt was still content he with nuzzling his hair and trying to sneak his hand under Lukas' shirt.

"Do you want me to read this aloud?"

"Sure," Matthias mumbled against his hair.

Lukas started to read it and Matt enjoyed the vibrations he could feel against his lips as he kissed Lukas' neck. He wasn't listening to what Lukas was reading at all.

He pulled Lukas' hip back more so he could lay halfway on top of Matthias. Matthias could wrap his arms all the way around Lukas' waist this way, and press his chin on Lukas' shoulder. Lukas didn't look away from his book, or even falter in his reading.

Matthias felt content, holding Lukas. Lukas relaxed and leaned into him; he seemed content, too.

They only had to read one act of Othello tonight, and they stayed like this for as long as it took Lukas to read that much.

When he was done—and Matt only noticed he was done when he set the book aside because honestly, Lukas' reading voice was low and monotonous and Matthias liked to fall asleep listening to it- Luke rolled over so he could put his head on Matt's shoulder.

Matthias smiled to himself.

"Come on, closer," Lukas put his arm on Matthias shoulder and pulled him toward himself. He leaned up and kissed Matthias' lips needfully.

Matthias smiled lazily and cupped Lukas' face. Lukas' hand ran over his neck, up along his jaw, following the contour of his cheek and tracing his lips. Matt sighed happily.

Lukas ran his hand over Matt's eyebrow slowly. Lukas was really, really touchy-feely when he felt like it.

It was warm, but they didn't want to pull away long enough to take their jackets off.

Lukas' room was the furthest from the stairs. That meant that he often didn't hear anyone coming toward his room till they were right there.

That is how they were so caught off guard when Lukas' mother knocked on the door, waited a moment, and came in. Lukas instinctively sat up, shoving Matthias off the bed. Ashe came in just as he hit the ground.

"Oh, Matthias, are you okay?" she looked mildly concerned, but Matt sat up quickly and nodded his head enthusiastically.

"Oh, yeah, don't you worry about me, Mrs. Bondevik."

"Yeah, he's just clumsy."

"Well, alright, your father and I are going to dinner, so you're in charge of Emil. There's fish in the freezer outside, don't forget to make dinner."

"Alright, mom," Lukas said, swinging his legs off the bed.

"He's doing homework right now."

Lukas nodded.

"Well, see you boys. Have fun and be safe. We'll be home by nine." She left.

Lukas waited until he heard the front door click shut before he glanced at Matthias.

"I should probably start that, then."

Matthias got back up and sprawled across Lukas' bed again.

"It's so unfair that they leave you to take care of Emil all the time. Don't they know he's their kid?"

Lukas shrugged. "I'm the big brother."

As Lukas was about to open his door to go downstairs and start dinner, Emil opened it from the other side. He was surprised to find Lukas right behind the door, but he walked past him anyway to sit on his bed beside Matthias.

Emil was in eighth grade and hadn't gone through his growth spurt yet, so he was still significantly smaller than his brother.

"What do you want, Emil?"

"I was thinking," he started with a sly voice, "and I think we should go get ice cream."

"Emil, Mom didn't say we could."

Matthias grinned, loving to watch Lukas play big brother.

"Yeah, but she didn't say we couldn't, did she?"

Lukas gave his brother withering stare. He played the part of older sibling so well.

"Fine. You want to walk to the ice cream shop then?"

Emil smiled and nodded.

"You know," Matthias commented, standing and ruffling Emil's hair, "usually kids your age don't beg for ice cream at every opportunity."

Emil shot him a side glance and shrugged. "I'll take what I can get."

They went down the stairs and put their shoes on, Lukas took some money from the jar their mother kept by the door for lose change, and they left. The ice cream shop was a couple blocks down from their home.

Matthias wanted to hold Lukas' hand, but he knew that that was beyond Lukas' boundaries. He was really cuddly when they were alone, but once there were other people around, he shied away. He really was a cat.

The night was warm, just starting to get dark. No one else was out.

Emil was lagging behind them a little, but as long as Matthias could walk beside Lukas, amiably close, he guessed he was happy.

He was almost shocked, then, when as their hands swung by each other, Lukas grabbed his hand.

Matthias glanced down at it, eyes wide. Lukas didn't even look at him, matter-of-factly holding his hand as they walked to the shop. Matthias grinned, and swung their hands between them.

When they got to the shop, Lukas dropped his hand in favor of counting his change.

"Em, we only have money for two ice creams. You and I will share."

Emil frowned a little, but couldn't protest before Matthias said, "That's fine. I don't need one."

"Really" Lukas stared at him calculatingly. "Fine. I'll let you have some of mine."

Lukas ordered the ice creams and they sat around a table.

Matthias felt happy. He was sure that Lukas only held his hand because there was no one else around, but it was still something.

However, he was surprised once again when he felt Lukas grab his wrist under the table. His hand slid down to fold between Matthias' fingers.

Matt glanced around the shop, trying to keep his grin small. He didn't want to give himself away, but he was pleased to find that there were plenty of people who could easily see the two of them holding hands in public.

Matthias' smile broke into a grin as he looked at Lukas. Lukas kept his face rather neutral, but his cheeks were a bit more red than usual.

Matthias wondered briefly what it meant, that Lukas was okay with holding his hand so publicly. Matthias liked to think of them as boyfriends, privately, but he knew Lukas thought of them more as friends with benefits, but maybe this meant he was changing his mind.

Lukas kept it discreet, and not even Emil noticed a change as he happily ate his ice cream.

Matthias looked out the window. There was a group of kids coming, and he even thought he recognized a few of them from. Lukas saw them come through the door, and dropped Matthias' hand as if he'd been burned. Matthias glanced at him, but couldn't say anything before they were recognized by the newcomers.

"Hey Matthias! Lukas!" a couple of the boys crowded around them. "How are you guys? Funny to run into you here!"

"Good! It is funny!" Matthias forced himself to smile broadly, though he didn't feel all that happy to see them. It felt like there was a rock settling to the bottom of his stomach as Lukas nodded in agreement with him.

The kids nodded, made a little small talk and Matthias couldn't focus on it. "Okay, well we're gonna get our ice cream." Finally, they left.

Matthias nodded and took some more of the ice cream he and Lukas were sharing. Lukas didn't look at him, and the ice cream didn't taste as good anymore.

Where their hands had been connected felt sweaty and cold. So Lukas didn't want to hold his hand, not where people they knew could see. Okay. That was fine.

Matthias forced himself to laugh when Emil got ice cream on his nose. His laugh sounded cold on his ears.

Matthias mentally shrugged it all of, though. Maybe Lukas would be proud to hold his hand next time.