Author's Notes: My second entry for the 12 Days of Christmas Prompt, hosted by Emo Cowboy and therainydaykids! Here we have the Starry Night theme, because I wanted to try something a little more romantic and down-to-Earth again. And a small thanks to Emo Cowboy for suggesting that I try basing it around Luke and Owen - though, it did take a different turn than I initially intended. Hopefully it turned out well, anyway!
The Line
"So, like... I think my ass is numb."
Lips twisting into a slight grimace, Owen Samuels gave his best friend a strange look from the corner of his eye and took a deep pull of his beer. "...Thanks for the update, Luke. I was seriously gonna lose sleep tonight if I didn't know. But I'm not gonna kiss it better for you," he added offhandedly, rolling his eyes even as his grimace stretched into a small smile. "No matter how much you beg me."
Grabbing his own bottle, Luke Potter pried the cap off with his teeth, spitting the little metal disc into the six-pack container. "You were gonna lose sleep over my ass?" he repeated, grinning mischievously as he turned his gold eyes back to the icy, glittering December sky. Owen's second eye-roll and under-breath muttering went ignored, as was normal when they were directed Luke's way. "Awww! So that's why you wanted to hang out with me tonight!"
Scoffing, Owen drained the rest of his beer and tossed the bottle back into the container, leaning back on his gloved hands and letting his gray eyes drift across the vast assortment of stars twinkling above the forest clearing. He settled on the familiar belt of Orion with a smirk, writing his warming face off as a combination of reaction to the cold, and the slight buzz he had going. At least, that would be his excuse if Luke noticed. On a normal day, he wasn't quite sure what to make of some of the things the hyperactive carpenter said and did. "Nah, I just felt sorry for you. Seeing all those shiny things in the sky at once, you'd probably get overwhelmed and forget to head home after a while."
"Probably," Luke agreed readily, leaning back and propping himself up on his elbows so as to offer himself a better view of all the various constellations he couldn't even begin to name, not a cloudy wisp in sight. "I do that sometimes, don't I?"
Snickering, Owen mimicked his position, glancing over at him appreciatively. At least Luke was honest. Mostly. Maybe. "Ehhh, you've gotten better about it, thankfully. That, or you just gave us new shit to worry about."
Another bottle was passed over to Owen, while Luke kept periodically sipping from his own - one of the few things in life that he took at a leisurely pace. Rotating his sore shoulders in a half-shrug, he flashed a teasing smile and reached over to ruffle Owen's spiked red hair, the gel dry and cracked in the freezing air. "Ahhhh, you know you love fussing over me, man! I keep you on your big, huge toes!"
Swatting Luke's hand away, Owen ran his fingers through the messed-up spikes, sighing. "Yeah, thanks for the thought, but I've got Chloe to give me enough premature gray hairs as it is."
"Mmmm." Nodding sagely, Luke returned to his reclining position, staring happily at the bright, shining stars. "Guess I'll just have to think of other ways to mess around with you, then, huh?" A devious chuckle followed this statement.
And there it was again.
Though the weather forecast had advised that Castanet would begin seeing heavy flurries around five the following morning, the skies were currently perfectly clear for the annual Starry Night Festival - though Owen and Luke had taken note of the heavy clouds stretching out beyond the distant mountain range on their way through Flute Fields. Thankfully, even Mother Nature seemed to have slowed her advance for a while, as if observing her own artwork with rightful pride.
While many of the residents had taken to the side of Moon Hill or the beaches of the Harmonica and Clarinet Districts for their star-gazing activities, the two friends from the Garmon area - at Owen's insistence - had made the trek to the Fugue Forest on the far side of town, all sound hushed out beneath the white-frosted branches and the silvery beams of moonlight dancing through the canopy. A nice spot to kick back and relax with a six-pack or two, enjoy the refreshingly cold air and the beautiful scenery, and maybe indulge in a nice beer buzz with a good friend.
Key words, Owen thought wryly, shooting a discreet glance over at the short, lean carpenter, before looking back upwards to mull over his thoughts, vaguely aware of the outline of Taurus shimmering faintly in the corner of his eye. Though he was loathe to admit it to anyone else, his more direct nature at odds with the whole idea of dancing around issues and keeping secrets, he had actually been losing a bit of sleep lately, regardless of his earlier brush-off.
Luke hadn't been too far off in jokingly pinpointing the source, either... overly-specific, at worst, but still fairly close to the mark. It wasn't just his body, though Owen wouldn't deny that the combination of Luke's fit form, his long, messy blue hair that was always spilling out from under his ever-present flame bandannas, and his easy grin had initially been a fairly alarming (and frequent) intrusion into his more private fantasies as of late. Of course, the genuine friendliness, boundless enthusiasm, and rather surprising skill at his craft didn't really hurt, either. If anything, they just stirred Owen up even more. He hadn't been quite sure what to make of it at first, and even after connecting the dots, he still wasn't especially keen on admitting it right now, either. At least, not out loud.
Owen wasn't quite sure when he'd noticed it all going on, or when it had started - the comments that could be taken as simple banter between best friends, or something a little more coy and subtle. Things like "You gonna spank me if I don't behave?" when Owen chided him for being too reckless, or a nonchalant, "Ah, you're all the date I need anyway, buddy!" after getting teased over having no date for the Flower Festival. Not to mention, Luke gradually growing more handsy, more touchy-feely in their interactions as the past year had shifted from season to vibrant season - more and more playful wrestling, or grabbing Owen's hand to drag him about. The "date" remark had been punctuated with a playful slap on Owen's butt.
Comfortable at first with casually brushing it off and shooting back a cutting or playful response of his own ("You touch all your dates like this, Luke?"; "Nah, just the sexy ones!"), Owen soon found himself anticipating the remarks, occasionally trying to goad one out, wondering where exactly he could toe the line between platonic and flirtatious, raunchy and downright explicit. He'd pushed the envelope surprisingly far with words alone, not quite daring to mimic Luke's more intimate actions in full - though he had returned the butt-slap almost casually, while uttering a response to one of Luke's boundless questions: "Behave, or I'm gonna have to spank you!"
Maybe it came from Luke's naturally bubbly, enthusiastically friendly nature - crushing hugs, stinging high-fives, fist bumps, secret handshakes, noogies, headlocks; personal bubbles be damned, Luke could clamber all over a friend like a monkey on crack if he were so inclined.
After the bubbly carpenter had accidentally blabbed to Maya Talbot about the surprise birthday party her parents had been planning the previous month, Owen had even exasperatedly threatened, later that day, to choke Luke with his dick. A sly grin and a responding challenge of, "Buy me dinner first, and you can do whatever you want to me, Sexy Man!" had left Luke cackling victoriously, while Owen stood speechless and pink-faced, hands crammed into his jeans pockets and mouth hanging open. And, later on, leaving him constantly wondering if the offer had been serious - much to his chagrin.
He'd certainly given genuine consideration to buying Luke dinner a few times after that, just to find out.
Until recently, he'd simply tried to dismiss all the brooding, the over-thinking, and the mulling as what his grandfather would term "fussy girl shit," and just accept things as they were. Interesting and maybe a little fun to think about, but nothing worth further consideration. After all, Luke wasn't exactly known for his tact or his excellent filter with anyone - whether he was earnestly asking a stupefied Perry Whitman if the Harvest Goddess had to use the bathroom like normal people, or suggesting to a scandalized Ruth Sellers that her constant headaches were a result of "the change," because she was "getting pretty close to that age, right?", he certainly didn't seem nervous about blurting out whatever came to mind.
Or maybe he was now, after Ruth had slapped the living shit out of him for the previous remark, demanding that he never return to Marimba Farm again. For his part, her husband had silently agreed with Luke's assessment - he'd just been smart enough not to admit it.
Still, Owen couldn't help but wonder if he was imagining the challenging gleam in his best friend's eyes every time he made a seemingly innocent comment tinged with just enough sexual tension to be questionable ("Dude, this is so fucking awesome! I could totally kiss you right now!"), or the excitement whenever the bait was cautiously taken ("...Well, at least your damn tongue would be doing some good for once"). He certainly knew he liked seeing it... maybe that was why he thought he saw it.
Never mind the fact that, while the girls in town made similarly playful remarks towards each other all the time, and certainly didn't shy away from hugging, hair-stroking, or cheek-kissing, neither Luke nor Owen had once yet dared to crack a would-be provocative remark about the other out in the open. Always on their own time, always in the mines, or the forest, or somewhere else they could be alone. Out of earshot, out of sight, never out of mind. Just the little things that added fuel to the fire around which they were constantly dancing, neither having the courage to simply step outside the boundaries and close the distance. He prided himself on being far more direct with people than this.
Idly, Owen wondered if it would be ironic to prompt a joke about who had the bigger balls. A casual, teasing segue into addressing the actual issue at hand. Hmm, let's see... 'Hey, Luke, by the way. If you don't wanna get so cold, maybe you shouldn't wear nut-huggers when you're gonna be sitting in the snow.' Not that he'd meant to stare, and not that he minded the end result in the least, but he did sometimes wonder how Luke squeezed himself into those jeans.
"You know, I was wonderin' something..."
Luke's voice poked against Owen's little thought bubble, popping it with ease and causing the older man to give a slight jolt and roll over onto his side. He propped his head up with a fist as he regarded Luke with a curious raise of his eyebrows, and felt his heartbeat speed up a little. He certainly wasn't used to Luke being so quiet for even short periods of time, never mind staying silent long enough for Owen to get lost in his own thoughts.
"...What the heck are those things, anyway?"
Turning his gaze to where Luke was pointing, Owen frowned in confusion at the sparkling sky, trying to play off his slight disappointment - Luke had started this coy, flirtatious... whatever-it-was, after all. Why would he, of all people, suddenly be asking Owen about it? "Uhh... you mean the stars? The things we specifically came out here to watch? Those 'those things?'"
"Ding-ding!" Luke responded in a rare display of sarcasm, rolling his eyes. "Seriously, though. What exactly is the deal with them? There's, like, probably a hundred of 'em! How'd they all get stuck up there?"
Suppressing a laugh, Owen sat back up, folding his legs and resting his hands on his ankles. "They didn't get stuck up there, you goober! They're just..." Though he'd borrowed a number of astronomy books from Wizard, his slightly-buzzed mind was trying to think of how to simplify the complicated explanations for Luke, who was giving him an interested glance. "They're... big, glowing balls of gas that are... really, really, really far away. Like, so far away, we're basically looking into the friggin' past because the light's just hitting us from billions of years ago."
Eyes going wide at trying to absorb all the new information, Luke turned his head back to the sky, blinking slowly as he drained the remainder of his chilly beer. "Whoa! So-" He tipped his empty bottle at an upward angle, looking amazed, "-you're saying that... like, we can see through time?! That's AWESOME!"
"Ehhh... more or less." Laughing softly, Owen watched Luke scrunch up his face in concentration. Is he actually trying to...? "You know, I could let you borrow the books sometime, if you want."
Luke waved him off. "Nahh, s'okay. I hate reading." Frowning, he cocked his head to the side. "...So, you're telling me people wish on big balls of gas that've been sitting up there forever? That's... weird."
Shrugging, Owen looked back up to the sky, brow furrowing. "Well... it's been going on forever. People didn't really know any better back then, Mr. 'What-Are-Thooooose?'" At Luke's guilty grin, Owen smirked, despite feeling his heart start speeding up once more. Perfect opportunity. "Besides," he continued, working to choose his words carefully and keep the conversation going at the same time, "people... do weird shit all the time, you know. I mean..."
Look at us.
"...Look at us," Owen finished, echoing his mental statement with a more practiced ease.
Keeping his eyes on the stars and squinting, as if trying to see what other time-traveling sights he could find, Luke's response was a rather absent, "Whaddya mean?"
Wondering how he could have so much trouble being straightforward with his best friend - let alone anyone else - Owen chided himself. It was Luke. They'd grown up together, lost family together, and - when both were a little more hammered and moody - confided in each other when they were sure they wouldn't remember it the next day. Owen usually needed a little more alcohol to spill his heart out, but his bid to retain his sanity won out over his comfort levels tonight:
"Well... you know, we're always... hitting on each other. The flirting, the... butt-grabbing stuff, the stuff we're always saying to each other - 'You're thinking about my ass,' 'Want me to kiss it better?' and all," he went on, not wanting to really make eye contact. His stomach constricted in discomfort as he continued letting it all out almost evenly, hearing no resistance cutting him off. "I mean... look, I don't mind. I actually kind of like it," he muttered quickly, face heating up again. "I mean... it kinda weirded me out at first, but it made me think after a while, and I like it a lot.
"I mean, not just the flirting," he clarified, wondering if he'd be rambling as much if he were a little less tipsy. "I like you doing it. I like thinking about us doing all the stuff we joke about. Hell, I just like you, period. I guess that's why I just wanna know if you actually, you know - if you mean it. Like, if you're actually into me, too, because while I seriously don't mind if you aren't, this shit's actually been driving me up the goddamn wall for months now."
A glance out of the corner of his eye told him that Luke had indeed heard him, though his expression was unreadable. Owen couldn't help but empathize - he didn't like talking about his feelings any more than Luke did. In fact, he found himself wishing he could just fast-forward through all the inevitable following awkwardness, just keep the beers coming until the whole conversation seemed like a strangely vivid dream, and prepare for the morning's gift of a horrible hangover.
"Well... yeah."
When Luke's voice broke the chilly silence hanging around them, breath sending the two words up in a fine mist, Owen turned his head with a slight start. "...Really?"
Sitting up and squaring his shoulders, Luke nodded boldly. "Well... yeah, man! I... I dunno, I guess I'm kinda... bad about actually saying it outright. I figure, maybe if you were a chick, I could just go up to you, be all 'Hey, baby, I'm a carpenter, want me to saw your fine ass in half?' and she'd be all 'Sweet, dude!', and-" His face fell slightly as Owen started shaking with rumbling laughter. "Hey, man, c'mon!" he whined, whacking a hand on the frozen ground for emphasis. "You just got all serious at me!"
"'Saw your ass in half?'" Owen repeated incredulously, his usual smooth bass pitched up with almost childlike mirth as he wiped at his eyes. "Dude, you - oh, no, don't tell me!" he groaned, suddenly slapping a hand over his eyes. "When you asked Selena to the Flower Festival-"
"Negative, Big Red," Luke cut in, relaxing a little, and grinning back at Owen. "Naw! She seems kinda freaky, but not that freaky! I just said, 'Hey! Check out the flowers with me! They kick ass!' and she told me to go fuck myself. But... yeah," he continued, face growing uncharacteristically serious once more, even as he started to babble:
"...I dunno, though! It just kinda, like... hit me one day!" He smacked the ground once again, his black gloves making a muffled whump on the snow. "You know, when you started working out more, and I was just looking at you in all those sleeveless shirts and stuff, all like, 'Niiiiice.' Or watching you look after Chloe and realizing, you know, you're - like - amazing with kids and stuff. And you're always looking out for me, even when I'm being kind of a dumbass!" he continued, head bobbing enthusiastically as Owen's eyes lit up. "So, yeah. I wasn't sure how to actually say it-say it, 'cause... well, you know. Plus, I didn't wanna make our friendship all creepy and awkward. It was kinda weird to me, and I just figured you were playing along 'cause we're best bros and all, but... yeah, I've been kinda wanting to hit that for a while."
The foggy cloud of his words evaporating into the air seemed to take the sound with it, if only for a moment, as Owen averted his eyes and mouthed, 'Hit that,' seriously? to himself. He decided to brush it off, a strange sense of giddiness starting to bubble in his chest. "...Well, at least you didn't offer to saw my ass in half," he mumbled thoughtfully, face growing hot once more. Looking back at Luke, he leaned forward. "You mean, you wanna go out with me or something, right?"
With another rapid nod of his head, Luke reclined slightly, resting his weight on his hands. "Err... yeah! Yeah... how does that even work?" he added, lapsing into a thoughtful murmur. Despite his previous dating experiences with a few of the girls in town, despite all his recent fantasies about Owen, all the flirtations and their years upon years of hanging out together - playing pool, shooting darts, chilling in the mines with their trusty six-packs at their sides - he was suddenly picturing the two skipping through a sun-kissed field of flowers, hand-in-hand. It was as though his brain was suddenly reminding him of some binding legal requirement.
He didn't like it.
Owen, for his part, rolled his eyes good-naturedly and shook his head, glad he couldn't see into Luke's mind at that moment. "Hmm... well, we've both dated girls before, so... just date each other how they dated us... I guess."
That would've sounded incredible if I were sober.
"I mean," he continued with a shrug, as Luke watched him curiously, "look, we'll figure it out. Just go with the flow. I'm sure we'll do fine."
"Sounds good to me!" Flopping backward onto the thin layer of crunchy snow with a relieved sigh, Luke folded his arms back behind his head, grinning up at the twinkling sky. "So... this is actually kinda romantic, now that I'm, like, really thinking about all this stuff now. Can this be our first date?"
Mimicking Luke's position once more, Owen, nodded, feeling the constriction in his stomach loosen slightly with his relieved chuckle. "Yeah, I think I'm okay with that."
"Awe-sooooome! ULTRA-DAAAAATE!"
Snorting with laughter as he heard Luke's enthused declaration echo about the forest, Owen rolled over onto his side once more, looking utterly bewildered. "What the hell was that?!"
"To the first of many amazing, bad-ass dates! Like, this, or darts or whatever," Luke explained, turning to face Owen as well, holding up his hand for a high five. Upon receiving it, he grasped Owen's hand tightly, golden eyes lighting up in the pale glow of the moon. When he spoke again, his voice was a little quieter - almost a husky murmur. "So, dude, remember that one time I told you I could totally kiss you?"
Stomach flipping at the memory of both Luke's comment, and his own response, Owen said nothing in return as he closed the small bit of distance between them, eyes sliding shut and world melting away around them. The expanse of glittering stars above the frozen forest clearing was all but forgotten to them for a few wonderful, warm moments.
Owen wasn't quite sure how they would navigate things in the long run, or even tomorrow, or the next day, or the one after. And even as he stroked Luke's soft, damp hair and pressed against the back of his bandanna-clad head, tasting the night's beers on the younger man's chapped lips and hot breath, he knew the fluttery, light feeling in his stomach wasn't entirely absent of nerves. Hell, maybe he'd freak out about it the next day, when the buzz was gone, but he still could remember the weird, yet not-unpleasant scratch of Luke's stubbly upper lip against his own.
Still, as they broke apart and shared a wide-eyed grin, their heavy panting visible between them for fleeting moments at a time, he found himself looking forward to figuring it all out, now that he hadn't crossed the line alone.
"Dude, a shooting star! Sweet! ...Man, you know how fucked we'd all be if a bunch of those things nailed us at once? Heh... 'nailed.'"
...For better or for worse.
Author's Notes: DOOOOONE! Just in the nick of time, too! I do love writing Luke, and Owen's become surprisingly fun to write recently... but writing them in a more serious situation, working with romantic and sexual tension between these two fairly similar guys while trying to keep them recognizable, was quite a (fun) challenge. So, thanks again to Emo Cowboy for the idea! And I seriously hope I did it justice! Admittedly, I pulled inspiration from watching a situation kind of like this one play out between two similar guys I knew some years back.
(As for Owen and astronomy - I know the posters don't really mean much, but in his room in Animal Parade, he has what appears to be a poster of Jupiter on his wall. Aside from being a pretty cool poster, I just decided to roll with it and give Owen an interest in learning about space and celestial objects. After all, his best friend is the ultimate space case...)
Anyway, feel free to leave a review, if you'd like - and I'll see you again tomorrow, when I post my Blizzard prompt! Wah ah ah ah ah...