The Smosh Games HQ was a sanctuary to Anthony Padilla.
While it, certainly, was a wild place at times, it also could go for hours or even days where it was completely silent, with the only audible sounds being the clicks of computer mouses and the gentle tap-tap-taps of fingers on keyboard keys.
So, in short, although the Smosh Games HQ was, at some times, a place of chaos, Anthony had long since regarded it as a place of organized chaos.
So he was only half-alarmed when David and Joshua (better known as Lasercorn and Jovenshire), came barreling down the hallway in his direction, as he stepped out of his office, in which he had just finished editing a video.
"Anthony! Anthony!", shouted David (Lasercorn) as he ran down to reach Anthony, almost tackling him. Joven was equally concerned, "Anthony! Anthony, dude!", he shouted, running alongside David. Anthony, narrowly sidestepping both Joven and David before they slammed into him, was more curious than annoyed, "What is it you guys?"
"It's Sohinki," said David, offering no other explanation.
Anthony looked at him quizzically, "What about him?"
"It's... well...", Joven said, looking at a loss for words.
Now Anthony was interested. Joven was never at a loss for words.
"Just... just come on, we'll show you." Said David, nodding his head in the opposite direction.
As they walked on Joven did his best to explain a story that seemed pretty far-fetched to him.
They had been, apparently, opening fan mail, when in a box, they found some cookies.
"Wait, so you just ate them?" said Anthony, skeptically.
David shrugged, "The expiration date was in a couple of months." He said, with a sheepish smile.
"And we were realllllly hungry," Joven chimed in.
Anyway, apparently Sohinki had found another pack of cookies, or so Anthony could gather from Jovens fast paced description of what had happened. He tended to talk extra fast when he was nervous or excited, and now was no exception. Anthony paid close attention, to try to get what he was saying.
Apparently, there had only been 3 cookies in that package, so Matt (Sohinki) has eaten them all.
"It was his fault for not sharing!" said David, shaking his fist dramatically.
"Anyway, we fond this.. note... about the cookies that Matt ate... after he ate them." fumbled Joven.
They had stopped walking now, and were inside the room where Joven, David, and Matt played most of their games and did most of their work on.
Anthony glanced at their computer screens.
Wow, he thought, this must be really important, if David paused his GTA just to tell me this.
"So... where is he now." said Anthony, glancing around and not catching any glimpses of Matt's light brown hair.
"Well... about that..." said Joven, nervously, twiddling his thumbs "We kind of..."
"Locked him in the closet." finished David, equally as nervous.
Anthony's mind went blank for a second.
"Wait, you what?"
"Locked him in the closet." said Joven, this time.
Anthony wasn't sure if he should be upset or laugh.
"What... Why?!"
Just before he could get any answer (forcibly or voluntarily) out of them, Ian burst through the door.
"Guys! What's up? What happened to Sohinki? I got your text..."
Ian trailed off, seeing David and Joven standing awkwardly and nervously and Anthony, who was about to either laugh or cry.
"What's going on?" said Ian, standing next to Anthony, and opposite David and Joven.
45 seconds later and Ian was caught up on what they had told Anthony.
"I see..." said Ian, trying to keep his face stoic and failing miserably, "And, why, exactly, did you lock Sohinki in the closet."
"Well... because... well... here, just see for yourself." said Joven, taking out a folded piece of notebook paper from his pocked and offering it in Ian and Anthony's direction.
Ian took the note and unfolded it, holding it out for both Anthony and himself to see.
A couple of sentences, written in black ink, in curly, loopy handwriting.
Anthony barely looked down at the note before he glanced back up at David and Joven, "A note from a female fan, don't you get these all the time? What is wrong with..."
"Hey, Anthony", said Ian, interrupting him, "You should really read this, like, really." Ian's eyes were still reading the paper, and had seemed to grow wider the further he read.
Anthony obliged his best friend and looked down to read the note.
"Hey Jovenshire, Lasercorn, and, of course, Sohinki. I love Smosh Games, you guys are my favorite YouTubers (aside from Smosh)! I recently went on a trip to Japan with my friends (kinda a celebration trip for graduating highschool) and i brought something back for you. The box of 3 cookies may look innocent - but be warned. These cookies are powerful aphrodisiacs. These are more of a thing you should show people rather than take, but if you want to, they're yours now! Anyway - stay awesome you guys! :D"
XXX Love you guys!
-Annabelle
They were both done reading now, and they both looked up.
"Ian," said Anthony, "What's an aphrodisiac?" he asked, knowing his best friend was basically a human dictionary.
"Well, it's... it's..." Ian's face reddened as he tried to explain it.
"Screw it!" Ian shouted, pulling out his phone and typing letters into his google search, "It'd be a lot easier just to show you the dictionary definition"
He clicked on a link, and showed the page to Anthony, handing over his phone to him.
Anthony read it out loud "An agent, such as a food or drug, that arouses or is held to arouse extreme sexual desire.. OH MY GOD!", he shouted, throwing Ian his phone back.
"And how many cookies did Sohinki eat, exactly?" Ian asked David and Joven, who were now a lot redder now that Anthony had read the definition out loud.
"All of them", Joven squeaked.
"And did anything... happen... after he did?" inquired Ian.
"No," David shook his head, "We locked him up right after we read the note, it fell out of the box that the cookies came in, I don't think he even knew..."
"GUYS, LET ME OUT OF HERE!" Came Sohinki's voice from the closet on the opposite side of the room, as he pounded on the door.
"Do you actually believe in that stuff?" asked Anthony, cautiously.
"I guess I don't, really" said David, "But Joven does and he's super freaked out..."
Joven elbowed him, "I am not! I just like to be... cautious.", he said, as Sohinki pounded on the door and protested even more.
They four of them just stood there, not quite knowing what to do.
"Screw it!", shouted David, eventually, after a couple of minutes of silence. "We just locked him up for no good reason. Guys, i kinda feel guilty. He's our friend."
"But he ate the..." Joven protested, not budging.
"And who says their an aphrodisiac? The teenage girl that wrote us that letter?" David retorted, "I don't even believe in that stuff!"
"I know how we can settle this," interjected Anthony, before a full out war could begin.
He walked up to the closet door, where Sohinki's protests had subdued to pleas and his pounding was now gentle kicking.
"Sohinki.. do you feel... wierd... like, at all?" Anthony asked.
"No, of course I don't!," he said back, angrily, "They just suddenly freaking carried me away and locked me in here? What they hell are they even doing?! Why did you put me in here?!"
Ian, Anthony, and David explained the entire story to him while Joven paced, anxiously, in the corner.
"Oh.", was all Sohinki said after the story was finished.
Silence.
"So...", Anthony said slowly, "Do you feel anything... like that?"
"No, i really don't." said Sohinki, from the closet, "I think that the cookies were fakes or something because I feel perfectly... normal."
Everyone, well, except Joven, who was always paranoid, seemed convinced. He didn't sound any different. David sighed a sigh of relief. He walked forward and unlocked the closet door, causing a slightly pissed Sohinki to come tumbling out.
Sohinki (Matt) stood up, straightening his clothes. After a lot of angry glares and apologies all around (although a skeptical one from Joven), everyone, eventually, gathered their things and started to head home. Anthony left first, with Ian following close behind, muttering something about being starving, and Joven leaving next, after 3 more rounds of Call of Duty.
Eventually it was just David and Matt left, David having got sucked into stickybombing innocent people in Grand Theft Auto, and Sohinki having nto finish a tournament of DOTA2.
They both ended up leaving at the same time. Matt walked up to him in the hallway.
"Hey, David, do you think you could give me a ride today? My car got towed a couple of..."
"No problem," said David, a little to quickly, being obviously guilty about what had happened, and happy at the chance of being able to make up for it.
They walked to where David's car was parked. He was about to unlock the drivers door and get in when Matt called his name.
"What's up?", David said, turning to face him.
"Hey, thanks, David, about the closet thing today."
David hardly had time to reply before Matt pulled him down by his shirt collar and their lips collided, his back being pushed against the smooth metal of his car.
This was risky. Matt knew that. And that scared him.
The thought of losing one of his best friends was scary, he knew that. But the thought that David would never know how he felt was even scarier.
And, even though he hadn't wanted to admit it, those cookies had done something to him.
He'd lied - wanting to get out of that closet, saying he was fine.
And he thought he was fine, at first.
Until he started noticing things. Things that he'd never noticed before.
Like how Anthony was basically the physical embodiment of sex, with his tight jeans, and his v-neck shirt, which Sohinki caught himself staring at far too long. And his lips. His plump, soft-looking lips. Sohinki had caught himself thinking this, and it was terrifying to him. Even more terrifying was what his imagination had played out in his head. He saw how much he would like to kiss those lips, passionately, how much he like to run his fingers through that soft, dark blonde hair. Those images had flickered in his mind and he'd tried to shake them away, but to no avail.
He couldn't stop noticing things.
Like how Joven's pout when he was angry was so adorable... Oh my god he'd just described on of his friends, his male friends, as "adorable".
Or how when Ian got up to leave he felt his eyes lingering on a place they shouldn't be.
Or, how, most alarming of all, David, whom he already knew he was attracted to (though he'd been denying it for years), walked into the room, and for the entire time they'd been together, his mind was screaming with want, with need for him. He was perfection. Everything about him. From his adorable shy smile to his laugh that could light up a whole room. He was so much more than perfection that there wan't even a word to properly describe it. Oh wait, yes their was.
He was David.
Sohinki had been so lost in his thoughts that he'd almost forgotten about the kiss.
Oh my god.
The kiss.
He's kissing him - David. Right now.
When he finally returned to reality, he'd realized, that, in only a quarter of a second, something had changed. Something had shifted.
When he finally realized what it was, it was as if a bolt of lightning ha run through his entire body, a shock from his head to his toes.
It was David. He was kissing him back.
As much as he hated to, he pulled their lips away, looking for an explanation using his eyes.
Davids light brown one's stared straight back at his.
They spoke, without words.
Sohinki flung himself on David again, this time their lips meeting in a passionate kiss, one that demanded more.
The taller one, David, scrunched down sightly, to meet his lips.
Their kiss was hungry and heavy, tongues fighting for dominance before Matt could even register what was going on. What had gotten into him? He would normally never do this, especially not in a public place, where they could be seen.
But for once, Matt didn't care, humming into the kiss, feeling all the breath leave his body. The aphrodisiac went through his system like a drug - and although Sohinki wanted privacy, it didn't. It just wanted more, more.
David, as though sensing this, turned his keys (which were already in the lock of his car), and thus opened all the doors in the car, without breaking his kiss.
He reached out to open the door, and they both fell into the back seat, Sohinki on top of David, who was pinned down on his back
-I took this part out, let me know if you would like me to write it back in-
For a couple of seconds all that could be heard were ragged gasps ad they both attempted to catch their breath.
"How long?" Sohinki managed to ask, in between breaths.
David's eyes, blown wide by lust, squinted, and he was about to give a crass and pervy remark, when Sohinki lightly punched him, jokingly, in the side.
"Ow," he said, grinning and rubbing his arm (although he wasn't really hurt - everyone knew the Jewish boy couldn't throw a good punch if his life depended on it),
"No.. I mean, how long have you... felt this way... about me." He managed to get out, his breath coming back to him.
David smiled and pulled Sohinki into his lap, making the younger boy blush and hide his face in David's bare chest.
"Forever." He said, as if no further explanation was needed.
And he was right.