Cecil looked over for what must have been the fifteenth time in the past couple of minutes.
Carlos still wasn't making eye contact. Instead, he was focused on the setting sun. They had a great view of it from the park bench on which they sat.
Nervous to say anything, Cecil stayed silent - for nearly the first time ever - just in case something slipped out that wasn't meant to be heard. He laughed at himself in his head. A radio man, scared of talking. Irony. He found it ridiculous that he spoke for the whole town every week or so, hosted a radio show, and said pretty controversial things on air quite regularly but he couldn't talk just to this one person.
"What was that?"
Cecil froze. Carlos was talking to him. What had he said? He cleared his throat with surprising difficulty. "Sorry, what was what?"
Carlos chuckled. Just the kind of rich, lovely laugh that you'd expect from someone as stunningly perfect as him.
Cecil steeled himself.
"You just sort of… snickered to yourself. Just a moment ago. I was wondering what was funny," Carlos said softly, his dark brown eyes reflecting the orange of the sunset.
"Ah. That was… ah. Well, I-" Cecil broke off. He didn't know what to say. This was going horribly, and he wondered how he ever thought he could equal a person as ineffably perfect as Carlos. Cards on the table, moron, he told himself. "I was just thinking about how I talk for a living, and how I can't think up with a single word to say when I'm with you that doesn't come out as something that makes me seem… undesirable." Cecil sighed, looking down at his hands resting in his lap. He bit his lip, feeling tears stinging the backs of his eyes. When he finally gathered the courage to look up at Carlos, he was shocked to find the other man laughing.
"I'm sorry," Carlos forced out, covering his mouth and biting back more giggles. "It's just- it's just did you realize that I didn't say anything either?"
Cecil nodded slowly. In truth, he didn't notice, but maybe it was because he was so used to just watching Carlos not talking, and when he did talk, it wasn't to him.
"Well, it was because I was scared of the same exact thing," Carlos continued, breaking out into more laughter. "I listen to your show every night and the thought of actually talking to you in person is a bit… overwhelming."
And soon, Cecil was laughing too. And they were laughing together. And after it'd died down, and they'd fallen silent, their lack of words wasn't scared or awkward. It was content and happy, and the sunset was blaring the most beautiful, vibrant warm colors that clashed perfectly with the deepening indigo of the sky.
Now, Cecil could enjoy it. Before, he'd been nervous and freaked out, but now… Now he was feeling like someone should feel before a beautiful sunset, the majesty of which was only bested by that of the man right next to him.
Without taking his eyes off of the horizon, Carlos reached down and let his hand find Cecil's, linking their fingers together.
Cecil quickly looked down and then back up at the setting sun, his heart hammering in his chest. Carlos's hand felt warm and dry and like it'd worked hard all its life and so, so perfect. And the only thought that came into Cecil's head, after all the times he'd imagined this moment, different settings, different times of day, different backdrops, was that it was about time. About time that he was finally here, with Carlos, like this with Carlos, like a real, actual couple and real actual people were walking by and seeing and no one cared.
All the tension and nerves were gone, every inhibition disappeared, banished by Carlos's touch. Cecil smiled into the sunset, carefully leaning his head on the scientist's shoulder. He was just about ready, he thought, to live a life like this.
