Chapter 3

"Buddy! You're back!" Fanboy rejoiced, his dear roommate again in his arms.

"Yep, Muk Muk's feeling better," Chum Chum reported. "So how did you sleep?"

"Believe it or not, I didn't do so bad," Fanboy smiled. "Ky—" He stopped. He was unsure of how his closest friend would react to his intimate act with another boy. He felt a little guilty, but he didn't see much of a reason to. Sure, he and Chum Chum had kissed before and behaved somewhat like a couple, but they had never expressly defined their relationship as such. So Fanboy decided that they should be free to pursue other…other…people to kiss…?

Still, Kyle had clearly not wanted Chum Chum to learn of the previous night's events—

"Ky…what?" Chum Chum asked.

"Ky—Ky…Ki—nda peaceful," the fan improvised. "It was kinda peaceful last night. Although I did miss you a lot."

"Oh, did I ever miss you," the younger boy began unpacking the balls he had juggled to entertain his ailing cousin. "I don't know how I managed to do the act right."

"Yeah," Fanboy's mind had begun to drift. "Look, it was great to see ya, but I have to…um…go see someone—I have some unfinished business…"

"Oh," Chum Chum seemed a tad disappointed. He would have thought Fanboy would have several things lined up for the two of them to do together once they were reunited after a whole night.

"Don't worry, buddy," Fanboy sensed his friend's feelings. "We'll play Shenanigans and Flying Pony and whatever you want when I get back."

Upon receiving his pal's smile of approval, Fanboy set off for a certain gargoyle-adorned dwelling.

Meanwhile Kyle was failing to lose the previous night's memory in his studies; and unbeknownst to even him he was sabotaging his own efforts. Subconsciously he was purposely losing his place in a book, or forgetting what he had just read; freeing his mind to wander off into blissful visions of purple and green. He initially believed his thoughts had turned into beautiful hallucinations when he heard a knock at his living room door and a familiar chipper voice calling his name.

But when he ignored it, it came again. Fanboy really was here to visit. Kyle's heart leapt into his throat and he struggled to swallow it back down. He walked shakily to the door, smoothing down his already perfectly shaped hair to ensure he looked his best; at the same time he affixed his usual scowl to his face. He couldn't let Fanboy know his true feelings. Not while he himself was still denying them.

Fanboy was hunched over nervously as he waited, wringing his gloved hands as if to squeeze the anxiety out of them. That motion and his posture together did nothing to make him look as confident as he wanted to, but once he saw his dear redhead appear in the doorway all of that apprehensiveness washed away.

"Hey there, Kyle!" he beamed. It was odd how the sight of that annoyed, brooding face brought out the opposite mood in him. When Kyle looked cynical, it somehow seemed to prompt Fanboy to take on a complementary demeanor—bouncy, happy-go-lucky…but then again, practically everything brought that out in him.

And unbeknownst to him, Kyle had long held his tongue about how much he admired that.

"Why must you enter my home before knocking on my door?" The wizard snapped, somehow holding back the grateful blush that Fanboy had barged in.

"Well you're always on this floor," Fanboy complained. "If I knock on the front door, how are you going to hear me up here?"

"My security system?" Kyle reminded with a raise of a brow (and a mental question of how Fanboy and Chum Chum repeatedly got past said security). He pointed to his palantir and began to explain how a magical "camera" of sorts was connected to it—allowing him to survey anyone at his front door—when he realized…that Fanboy was here alone.

"Where's Chum Chum?" he interrupted himself. "If he's downstairs messing with my potions I'll—"

"No, he's at home," Fanboy placed his hands firmly on the other boy's shoulders, in case he had been planning to storm downstairs in search of the little one. "I know it's weird—me showing up here by myself, without my sidekick and all, but I guess, well, that night kind of showed me that I can do things on my own." His bottom lip was now quivering, and Kyle broke free from his grasp and scanned the room for an umbrella.

"I guess," Fanboy sniffled and smiled, "I'm really growing up. Thanks for helping me through that night, Kyle."

Kyle's tummy turned. "No. Don't include me in your mentions of that night. I just want to forget about it all. Let me tell you, and you listen," he jabbed a finger inches from Fanboy's face to underline his point, "I may have been present that evening, but I was not a part of it."

He turned away gruffly, secretly afraid to see his dear fan's reaction. He prayed to God that Fanboy wouldn't cry.

But when the superhero was silent, Kyle turned around, and was rattled to his core by the very knowing smile he was met with.

"You're lying through your wire-wrapped teeth!"

"W-what?" Kyle's voice quivered, betraying him.

"Come on; you got in my bed," Fanboy was doing a shoddy job of suppressing a giggle.

"I-I—" Kyle's skinny ears fell, as they often did when he cowed or slumped. "I—your heater must have been broken!" He accused. "I was just dreadfully cold."

Fanboy scoffed and dug his knuckles into his hips. "Oh, and I guess your lips were just cold too."

It was Kyle's turn to hold back a laugh. The fan looked rather comical when he was angry.

"It was late, and I was tired." The conjurer's voice heightened in pitch; he blamed it on early puberty. "I don't know what I was thinking." That too was a lie. He would always remember what he'd been thinking that night.

"C'mon," Fanboy raised a brow and gave his most suave smirk, "no one lip-locks with this hunk of fan and doesn't enjoy it."

Fortunately, with Kyle's large teeth it was harder to tell that a smile was trying to form. But he knew his lips would show the concealed emotion if he were to continue speaking, so he turned his back and took a deep breath.

"You really think you're in love with me." A question in the form of a statement. On the surface he was speaking in annoyance; it masked genuine curiosity.

Behind him he heard his crush echo the deep breath.

"All I know is being next to you took away all my worries—about being alone, and spending a stormy night without my Chum Chum—and today I woke up wanting to be with you more than anything." He took Kyle by the hand and gently turned him around. "I don't know what you call that, but I've never felt exactly like that for anyone before."

Kyle found that he was quickly and uncontrollably slipping into the hold of that gaze. It wasn't often that he saw Fanboy this serious, and he had never seen a non-wizard cast such a spell on someone.

"Not for anyone else?" He asked the wonderful boy. "What about Chum Chum?"

Fanboy's face gradually fell. "Well yeah, but that's different. Chum Chum…I love him a lot…but—he's more like a brother. I love being with him but I don't spend hours staring at him in class."

Kyle was taken aback. "You—you're staring at me when you have that look on your face? I thought you were merely spacing out."

"At first, yes," Fanboy snuck a hand onto the other child's back and pulled him closer. "But then I found something to space out about. And now, after last night," he gave a silly, squiggly smile, "maybe something can come of it?"

"I um, I don't know," the little wizard's face reddened with each word. "I—I mean no!" He pushed him away and backed towards his study table. "This is all preposterous! You break into my home whilst I was studying—" feeling the Necronomicon behind him, he thrust the book in front of him for emphasis, "and you go on about this nonsense; calling on me; the two of usin a romantic relationship—unimaginable!"

"You…can't imagine it?" Fanboy's eyes trained on the ground. "I mean, I know I'm a boy and you're a boy, and we don't have much in common," he glanced up at the Necronomicon, "'cuz you like to study and I hate books and all…"

"Beg your pardon, good lad?" The tome took offense.

"Oh, I mean, um, the non-sentient type of books," Fanboy countered sheepishly.

"Exactly—we have little in common," said Kyle (despite his surprise that Fanboy knew the word "sentient"), "unlike you and Chum Chum. We wouldn't be compatible." He lowered the book to the table.

Fanboy gazed at him longingly. "That might not be important. Kyle, do you love me?"

When the only answer from his dear Kyle was a downcast look to the floor, Fanboy's heart shattered. He turned and dragged his feet to the door, lacking the will to even say goodbye. He lumbered down the hall, debating with himself whether to deny or accept this…rejection. A gentle hand on his back, though, prompted him to deny.

"I'll need more than a morning to decide."

Fanboy whirled around, the optimism in his eyes fully restored. Kyle was shyly smiling at him, hands clasped.

"Come back and see me in about two days, all right?"

"You got it, buddy!" The hero wrapped his stringy arms around the conjurer.

"And do knock next time," Kyle insisted. Feeling Fanboy next to him again made the wizard's face blush deeply.

Though as he watched his suitor leave, he wondered for a moment why the heat in his face was focused not so much in his cheeks, but more so in his forehead.