#which means these two canonically sent eachother love songs and still ended up like this /hj

[heyimash06]

An Encouraging Pep Talk

"Please tell me you aren't actually this stupid?" an annoyed voice asked over Ashton's phone.

"I- I mean, maybe, but you don't have to be a dick about it," cie answered, slouching a bit more in his spot in the shitty metal folding chair. He'd been given the chance to buy a real desk chair several times, but never did because it felt like a waste of money. He was functioning fine with just the metal chair. "I- I called you for advice, Piers, not to get insulted for 5 minutes..."

Piers sighed, probably rolling his eyes on the other end. "Yeah, I know, but it's hard to not insult you when you're this dumb... Remind me again what base you two are on?"

They were mildly confused, unsure what he meant by that. "...like first-name basis??"

"No, not like that- Just- have you even kissed? That's first base." Oh, they knew where this was going. Piers was going to call them a loser and laugh at them for being such a failure at relationships, wasn't he?

"Um... no, but we- we've- um-" Ashton struggled to come up with an excuse for why he and Asp had remained platonic, even after both confessing that they were definitely more than platonically interested in each other. He didn't really have one, he was just scared of escalating things too fast or ruining what they already had. After all, how awkward would it be if he started dating his roommate, they had a falling out, and then had to keep living together?

Their friend sighed again. "You're... fucking hopeless, Ash. I hope you realize that." Min was very aware of how hopeless min was, but min didn't need a reminder. "Look, all I'm going to say is that it's a lot easier to bring it up in a conversation than you think it is. Hell- You could just walk up to the guy randomly and tell him you're head over heels and want to kiss his stupid face, and I am pretty sure he'd laugh and take that as a proper confession."

"I- There's no way that would work-"

"Would it work on you?"

"I- touche."

"See? I'm leaving it there since Gold might actually hunt me down if I bungle something for Asp," he joked before adding, "I have to go anyways, I'll talk to ya later when you've totally charmed your way into Mothman's pants and you're a certified chad. Seeya." And with that, he hung up, leaving Ashton to sit in silence, incredibly embarrassed.

Cie sighed, slumping back in cies chair. Piers probably had a point. He'd known Asp for 7, close to 8 years, what's the worst that could happen? Well, Asp could so thoroughly reject him that he had no choice but to pack up his stuff and move back to Texas, but being realistic, nothing too bad. So, what should chi do? Should ey just... get up and tell him? Or should they go out and get something for him first? Flowers would be too cliche... but then what else? Everything Asp really wanted was expensive games online, and as much as Ashton loved him, they also didn't have a great job, so that was also a no-go... Well, ey had the card ey'd been holding onto for a while, but would Asp really appreciate a plain Pokémon card? They supposed it was worth a shot...

Setting his phone on his desk, Ashton stood up and moved towards his shelf, pulling off a beat-up old binder and opening it up on the floor. Flipping through pages and pages of Pokémon cards, they hummed to themself, looking for a specific one. Ey found it after a few minutes, in the middle of the most recent page. Carefully pulling it out, he inspected it again to make sure his dumb ass hadn't managed to damage it before putting the binder back up and rushing out of his room to go find Asp.

He was sitting on the kitchen counter, eating Goldfish with Mitzi. The little Ragdoll kitten was absolutely vibing, happily crunching on whatever goldfish pieces Asp set out for her on the counter.

Once more, Ashton nearly hit his head into the cabinets on the way in, but he got there unscathed. Carefully hiding the card in his pocket, Ashton moved a bit closer, smiling nervously. "Hey, Mothie, I have... a thing for you!"

Looking up from the cat in his lap, Asp asked, "ooh, what kind of thing?" It was semi-common for both of them to find random objects and gift them to each other, so Ashton still had a chance to chicken out, if he needed it.

"A Pokémon card-" he realized how stupid it sounded right after it left his mouth "-but it- it's a Pokémon I think you'd- you'd like... or something- It- it reminds me of you, y'know?" they admitted, pulling the card out of their pocket. Cie held it out for cies roommate to see. It was just a plain Frosmoth card with nothing special going on, but cie hoped the thought behind it would be at least okay. He hadn't been lucky enough to get a rarer card, but even if he had, he wasn't sure if he wanted to give it away so easily.

Asp unfolded his legs, sadly forcing Mitzi to stand up and hop down, and slid off the counter, reaching up to take the card. "Oh, thank you... is- is it because fluffy white moth-"

"Yes, it is 100% because fluffy white moth-"

Despite the slightly lazy and stupid reasoning behind the gift, Asp smiled up at em. That made Ashton smile too, followed shortly by a rosy pink color across his nose and cheeks. They stood there for a second, staring at each other before Ashton remembered why he'd rushed out there.

"Um- I- I meant to ask you some-something... can- can I do that-? Sorry-" he asked. Yes, of course, remind him of your biggest flaw while in the process of asking him out, definitely won't go horribly.

Asp leaned back on the counter, holding the card still. "Yeah, go ahead."

Ashton nodded and ran a hand through his hair before starting to pinch at his neck. "Uh- O-okay, so, uh- I- I have no idea how to properly ask this, but um- do- do you maybe... want to.. be, like, more... than just best friends? As in, like... b-boyfriends or something-?" cie asked nervously, starting to trail off around halfway through. Asp looked up, surprised. He opened his mouth to say something when Ashton looked to the side and started rambling again. "I- it's okay if you don't, obviously, I- I just reckoned I'd ask since- since we uh- since the notebook thing, but, like, really, you- you don't have to-"

Ey were cut off by another pair of lips coming into contact with eir own. They'd been so busy overthinking the whole deal and expecting rejection that they didn't feel Asp's hand reaching up to pull them down for a kiss. Cie froze up slightly, surprised by the sudden action before practically melting. Mins arms slowly moved up and around Aspen's neck, pulling him closer in the process. Little bursts of excitement and happiness popped in cies chest and head, making the whole thing feel a bit like a dream. Chi stood up on chis tippy toes and leaned forward, making the two of them stumble slightly.

Thanks to a pesky need for oxygen, the two of them had to break apart after a short bit, but Ashton's head was still buzzing happily, making it feel like everything was shaky. Or maybe they were just shaking. It felt a little silly to be a grown man in his twenties, freaking out over his first kiss, but Ashton had also missed the dating and/or kissing part of high school due to mental health, making this a very monumental occasion.

After standing there, slightly stunned and smiling like a fucking idiot, Ashton asked, “s-so is that like… a yes, or-?” Maybe that was a little stupid to ask, but he needed to be sure before he made any labels in his head! It’d suck if cie changed the way cie thought about cies roommate and then turned out to be wrong.

Asp laughed and leaned his head on mins shoulder. “I-it is a yes… god can you imagine how awkward it would be if it wasn’t? Imagine just kissing your roommate and then pretending nothing happened… I’d die.”

“Same,” chi said before wrapping chis arms tighter around Asp and giggling like a teenage girl. “I’m sorry- I- I’m just… r-really happy… or- or something- I’m glad the whole… love thing is at least kind of mutual… I’m gonna be honest, I- I’ve like highkey been kind of pining since like- I- I don’t know, like 10th grade? A- a while-... a-and I'm sorry I'm so awkward about everything..."

Aspen stood on his tippy toes to kiss Ashton on the forehead. "It's alright... I'm pretty awkward too. It's kind of why we get along," he assured. He did have a point. The two of them met on a game all those years ago and bonded over similar struggles and experiences. Eventually, that grew into... what they had now. And that was... special. At least Ashton thought it was, which had to count for something. Even if it wasn't that special, it felt special and that's what really mattered. And if it ever stopped feeling that way... well, that was that.

All that mattered now, though, was that it was mutual and they were able to do things like hug or kiss without it being weird. Ashton gave Asp one last little squeeze before releasing him and stepping back a bit. "Well uh... that's all I really came in here to do... y-you can go back to... whatever you were doing now... sorry-"

He looked around the kitchen for a moment before saying, "Mitzi is gone, so I'm not really doing anything now- And don't- don't apologize, you didn't do anything wrong... if- if you weren't doing anything either, do you want to, like, play some Wii Party or something-?"

"What a romantic first date... but yes, 100%-"

Word Count: 1587