"C'mon give me your hand," Connor extended his hand down to Kevin.

Kevin slapped his offending limb away, "I can do it."

Kevin clambered up the final few rungs of the ladder to join Connor on the small wooden platform. Connor was excited to be back at the treehouse, with Kevin, no less.

"Did you know? I had a nightmare of you pushing me down to my death from up here," Connor admitted. It felt cathartic to finally be able to say it out loud.

"Huh," Kevin studied the ground below as he let his feet dangle off the edge, "The fall probably won't kill you. Break a lot of your bones, maybe. Head injuries are highly likely too."

"That's your takeaway from what I just said?!"

Kevin frowned at Connor, "You know, they say that your dreams really are just your subconscious thoughts. So your subconscious thinks that I'd hurt people? That I'd hurt you?"

"What?" Connor went rigid. There Kevin goes again, with his dark thoughts. Was Connor supposed to be worried? Was Kevin gonna…

Kevin sighed and turned away.

"No, of course not! My brain's just being…weird. Of course I wouldn't think that you'd actually do that," Connor added hastily.

"I was just joking, Connor," Kevin said, but there was not a hint of play in his voice, "You don't have to look at me like that, I'm not going to start losing it on you again."

"Kev, I-"

"So, when are you going to meet with our potential benefactor?" Kevin asked.

"Uhh, tomorrow night. I've set up for a skype call tomorrow night."

"Good, that's good. How much money do you think he'll give us?" Kevin gazed into the distant fields.

"I don't even know if he'll even give us any yet, don't get your hopes up," Connor squeezed Kevin's knee.

Connor could hear rowdy yelling in the distance, probably from the soccer game. He drew circles with his finger on Kevin's knee.

"So you think that there's still a chance we'll have to return home by the end of the month?"

Connor sighed, "I can't say, Kevin. I don't know what's going to happen."

"You know, Church was really nice to me at breakfast today," Kevin commented, "It was like he's afraid of triggering me into having some sort of mental breakdown."

Connor's head spun at the abrupt segues, "Kevin-"

"He actually made an extra cup of coffee, for me, can you believe that?" Kevin shook his head and laughed airily.

"Well, everyone's just concerned about you," Connor reasoned, "They care, you know. They've been asking me about how you're doing."

Kevin looked away, "They did, huh? Why didn't they ask me that themselves?"

Connor has been so used to answering the Elders' questions about Kevin, that he didn't realise he had inadvertently became sort of a buffer between Kevin and everyone else.

"Because you're-," Connor struggled to find the correct word. He couldn't, not without opening another can of worms.

"Well anyway, I wished that Church would just go back to hating me. It was really weird," Kevin said.

"Elder Church doesn't hate you, Kevin," Connor was getting tired of repeating himself over and over again.

"Mmmm," Kevin hummed noncommittally, and then went on, "If we have to go back to America, do you think there'll still be an Us?"

"Kev, you're giving me whiplash," Connor muttered, and took a deep breath, "Of course we'll still be together, unless you don't want us to be?"

Kevin's silence made Connor's heart skip a beat.

Was Kevin changing his mind? Did he realise that he was straight after all?

"Kevin?"

"What?" Kevin snapped out of his daze, "No Connor, of course I'll still want to be with you. I'm just thinking out loud, don't mind me."

Connor exhaled in relief, and tuck a loose lock of hair from Kevin's forehead back to its place, "How can I not? Your thoughts are really depressing Kev. And you say that I'm the worrier."

"I'm a realist now, remember?" Kevin inched closer, "You said you liked the new me."

Connor quirked his eyebrow, "You actually remembered that?" Connor's mind flashed back to the time when they were waiting for the bus to Kitgum under the tree.

"Of course," Kevin looked down at Connor's lips and then back at his eyes.

"I'm so confused right now," Connor chuckled lightly. Was Kevin sad? Was he happy? Does he want to make out? Connor couldn't tell anymore.

"What? Why?" Kevin frowned.

"Thinking out loud, don't mind me," Connor repeated Kevin's words, and then leaned in to plant a kiss on Kevin's lips.

Kevin grinned and laid his head on Connor's shoulder. Together, they waited for the sun to set.

"It's going so slowly."

"Are you actually asking the Sun to hurry up? The Sun?!" Connor guffawed.

Kevin pursed his lips, "Technically, I'm asking the Earth to go faster."

"Oh Kevin Price, I love you so much."

—

By the time the Kevin and Connor got back to the mission hut, the other Elders were already back from their game of soccer, and were preparing for dinner.

"Elder McKinley!" Elder Michaels greeted Connor with a wave and nodded politely at Kevin, "Elder Price. Just in time, Elder Church and I are almost done with dinner."

"Thank you, Elder Michaels," Connor clapped Elder Michaels on his back.

"Kev, bud! You won't believe this! We won the game!" Arnold pulled Kevin down onto the couch beside him.

"Really?" Kevin laughed.

Connor was actually impressed that the Elders had it in them to win the Ugandans at soccer. The villagers were too good, and the Elders were well, them.

"That's because Arnold convinced Nabulungi to join our team," Elder Neely explained, "She scored all the goals."

"Yeah! How amazing is my Nabu, right?!" Arnold cooed, and then grabbed at Kevin to whisper something in his ear. Kevin glanced once at Connor as Arnold continue to whisper.

Connor was intrigued. Were they talking about him? Kevin's eyes flitted over to him again.

When Arnold finally finished, he gave Kevin a pleading look.

After a moment of hesitation, Kevin reluctantly said, "Okay."

Arnold squealed. He grabbed Kevin's face, "You're the best! I love you so much best friend!"

"Oh eww! Arnold! Your spit's on my face," Kevin tried to shy away.

Arnold laughed, "You love my spit, best friend!"

"Gross!" Elder Neely shuddered.

"No, I most certainly do not," Kevin finally broke free from Arnold's hold, and fell back onto Connor, who was perched on the armrest of the couch.

"What was that about?" Connor tapped on Kevin's shoulder.

"Hmm?" Kevin frowned, "It's not important."

Connor rolled his eyes. And Kevin said that Connor was the worst liar?

"Guys!" Elder Michaels called out, "Dinner is served!"

—

"Are you gonna tell me what it is?" Connor slurped at his vegetable stew.

Kevin shrugged.

"Is it about me?" Connor tried.

"Umm..."

Arnold was clearly listening in on their conversation, because he tried to bail his friend out at once, "Kev! I gotta tell you something," he pulled on Kevin's elbow. Kevin immediately obliged and turned away from Connor.

For the rest of the dinner, Kevin was occupied with listening to Arnold recount what happened at the soccer game, peppered with pop-culture references at every turn. Connor was sure that Kevin wasn't actually taking in anything his companion was saying. He was just trying to avoid answering Connor's questions, and that only made Connor even more determined to find out what the secret was.

Game on, Kevin. Connor smirked.