Slival had anticipated a daytrip outside of the little town. He had anticipated having another so called 'small-town-skill' shoved down his throat. And he had anticipated such a skill to come with some sort of degrading price for failure. And to say that he had anticipated everything would have been a gross overstatement. Rocket was taking them on a daytrip and nothing more. Said boy came to a halt in his favorite clearing, smack-dab in the middle of Forewood Forest, and turned to face his friends. Hooly was the first to speak,

"Alright, so now what?"

Rocket smiled, pointedly meeting gazes with Slival,

"I thought today we'd give poor Sivs a break, and just…play."

At his comment, Hooly raised his eyebrows, Bo tilted her head to the side a bit in thought, and Slival breathed a silent sigh of relief. Hooly was the first to recover from his friend's words, and provided the next question,

"And what are we going to play?" he asked, and absently ran his fingers through his mess of sandy brown hair,

"Does Sivs know any games?" came Bo's query, which prompted Hooly nodding in agreement. Rocket shrugged at this,

"How hard can it possibly be to teach him hide-and-go-seek?" he asked, "Anyone with common sense can figure it out from the title, am I right?"

Hooly and Bo murmured their agreements.

"And besides," Rocket continued, "Us hiders get at least two minutes to hide, I'm sure I can explain it by then."

"Oh so we're doing it in teams now, huh?" Bo asked, "You and Sivs hide and me and Hooly seek?"

After a moment of pondering Rocket nodded,

"Yes, that is in fact, exactly what I mean."

Hooly met his friend's gaze for a moment, expressing his confusion through it. Rocket offered him a smile which answered with reassurance, and with not so much as a backwards glance, motioned for Slival to follow and took off at a jog into the woods.

Slival followed his friend, carefully mimicking his steps and doing his best not to take his eyes up from his feet. He figured Rocket must have decided to come to the Forest on purpose. That he knew about what was hidden there. And that he was going to expose it in front of everyone. Slival knew if he took his gaze off his feet, he'd see all the painfully obvious clues. The snapped branches, the crushed foliage, and the rest. Rocket was devious like that, Slival was sure he could figure it out without breaking a sweat. He was further convinced when Rocket grabbed his wrist, turned sharply and dragged him down into a creek bed, long since dried up leaving nothing but the smooth stream pebbles in its wake.

Slival found himself crammed under a slight overhang and told to be quiet. He watched silently as Rocket maneuvered a pace away from him to glance above the edge of the creek, only to duck back down and press himself against the wall. The sounds of heavy footsteps followed the action closely and Slival realized he was holding his breath. The footsteps stopped several feet shy of the creek and they heard Hooly's voice telling Bo to go in another direction. The footsteps then went their separate ways, and continued on into the woods until the noises faded away.

His breath came out in a long, deep sigh, and with a nod from Rocket, Slival unknotted the tight muscles in his legs and stretched them. When he looked up again, Rocket had sat down next to him, leaning casually on the wall of the creek bed, his smile was soft. When he spoke his voice came out affectionate,

"Sivs…what do you think about love?" he asked. Slival turned and looked at the other boy with confused dark eyes. That had certainly been the last thing he'd expected to come out of Rocket's mouth. The latter noticed the look on his friend's face and offered him a shy smile, "Never mind," he said, "It's a silly question anyway."

"There's no such thing as silly questions." Slival said, forcing himself not to choke on the words and stutter,

"Just silly answers," Rocket finished, his smile broadening a bit. Slival nodded; surprised he'd remembered that phrase. It had been such a long time since Rocket had taught him that. He met his friend's eyes before speaking,

"What about love?"

"Like…what do you think of it?" Rocket said and shrugged, "What kind of person would you go out with…what would you do with them…what would they look like?" he paused and awkwardly smiled, "I'm just kind of confused with myself is what it is." He said, "I've talked to the older guys, they say it's the whole Finding Yourself thing, but from what they said I figured it would happen when I got a lot older, you know?"

Slival shrugged and opened his mouth to speak, but Rocket had already gone on,

"And its not that I don't know what kind of a person to look for, or anything like that. Honestly I've got a pretty good idea of it. It's just the coming out and admitting to them is what's got me running scared."

"That's all justified," Slival said softly, "I wager it's your first, right?" he received a nod, "Exactly, it's something you've never done before, so you have every right to be nervous about it. It happens to everyone."

"You sound like Ma." Rocket said. Slival cringed inwardly at his words. He had been hoping it wasn't that blatantly obvious. It had only been a few days ago that Ma had given him The Talk, over lunch no less (Pa would have, but had more confidence in his wife's vocabulary than his own). Outwardly, Slival offered a bit of an awkward laugh, mumbling something to the effect of,

"Yea, I guess I do."

They sat in silence for a minute or two more. The forest around them sighing through the tree leaves, birds chirping and the clouds floating peaceably overhead. Then,

"Slival?"

He turned to meet Rocket's gaze, finding him leaning forward a bit, the look on his face was unsure and he seemed a bit flushed, but his eyes glinted determinedly,

"I…I love you."

Slival never quite heard what Rocket had said. He was too caught up in the liquid bliss that was bubbling up in his chest. He only half noticed when his friend leaned in and caught him up in a kiss, realizing only after he'd done it that he'd willingly met Rocket half way, and was confused as to why he wasn't startled by it.

He'd have happily continued on for as long as Rocket so chose to lead, however they were both rather startled when Hooly's voice came out of nowhere,

"Haha, so Rocket's true colors finally come out, huh?"

Rocket looked up sharply and blinked in embarrassment before his friend's grinning features. Hooly sniggered at him from where he was leaning upside down over the edge of the little overhang,

"I always knew you had it in ya'," he said teasingly, "But never in a million years would I have thought to pair ya' up with Sivs."

Rocket matched his grin,

"Is that right?" he said, the note in his voice was challenging, "And this is coming from the guy who's going around with a secret love affair with my sister?" Naturally he was exaggerating a bit. But Hooly blushed profusely all the same.

"H-how'd you know about that?" he asked, flustered. It was Rocket's turn to snigger,

"She's my sister." He repeated, "And it's a brother's job to read his sister's diary, isn't it?"

Hooly laughed and sat up straight again, cuing Rocket to emerge from his hiding place. Slival, by then, was beginning to recover his wits and sat in half stunned silence. It was only just beginning to sink in what had just happened, and even though he watched Rocket smiling at him again, he never really saw it. It was only when the other boy spoke did Slival snap out of his thoughts,

"C'mon, Sivs," he said, just as if nothing had ever happened, "It's starting to get late; we should get home before Ma gets worried."

The latter nodded daftly and accepted his friend's hand in getting up. He was about to follow Hooly back into the woods when Rocket grabbed hold of his arm and pulled him back,

"And Sivs…" he whispered to him, "We all know you buried your helmet around here, its probably a good idea to get it now so it won't rust."