(Very Unedited)

I stared at the feeling as I got caught up in my thoughts once again thinking about someone I hadn't seen since the last day of eighth grade, I missed him so much, he was best friend and my first love back them.

Now I was in college, still fantasizing about his silky curly pitch-black hair and his earthy brown eyes, his pale skin was littered with acne scars and blemishes and his nose was slightly crooked but he was still the most beautiful person my eyes landed on to this day, the last I saw him he was still the skinny nerd with braces and oversized harry potter glasses I had basically grew up with before I was forced to move the summer of freshman year.

I missed so much about him, like the nights we'd stay up while I played in his hair that he always claimed was greasy despite him taking good care of it, us going out while it was raining and kicking water at each other and catching frogs like we were five and not twelve, the way he snorts when he laughs and his full body blushes, when he's focusing and there's a cute pout on his face, his chipped front tooth that showed in every smile before he got his braces, the face he makes when he first woke up, too many things to list without making someone fall asleep halfway through, the only thing I didn't miss was how he was a magnet for mud and constantly walked into my house tracking the dirty water mixture on the floor after I moped after his soccer practice.

it had been years since I last saw him yet I still can't get that toothy smile out my head, it kept me up at night and distracted when studying, especially during the first few days of high school, Finally sighing and rolling out of bed I scratched my chest from under my shirt and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day and try to push him to the back of my mind like I usually had to when I had to focus, the one regret I ever had sticking to me like glue.

I never asked him out.

I had planned to do it at our freshman graduation but that was obviously looking too far into the future as we didn't even hit our freshman year, all of those kisses we could have shared and opportunities to cuddle closer thrown away because I didn't want to be too young and for us to fall out before I was ready to let him go, I always had the urge to go back to our home town just to check on him when I had the chance but I always chicken out, what I was afraid of was unknown to me.

After a quick shower and brushing my teeth I brushed my hair for four seconds then put on the university hoodie and some jeans slinging my backpack on my shoulder prepared to face the cold fall day of my junior year, just a few more years and I can finally start my actual life, and hopefully be so busy that all distractions are thrown out the window, once my shoes were on I started my long walk in the quiet dawn, a soft breeze flipping my already messy hair around. as I passed her house, my friend Yuri popped out and jogged to my side on the concrete unusually happy for it being freezing outside, "Morning Felix!"

"How are you so perky?" I looked at her from the corner of my eye then back in front of us.

"That's because I actually sleep" She nudged me, then shoved her hands in her pockets to keep them warm, "That and coffee"

"Figured" I mumbled as we walked.

"Hey, it's not like we have anything to be excited about, all we have is Mr. Fletcher and the horrid stacks of homework" She groaned.

"You have a stack of homework" I pointed out as we rounded a corner "I do most of mine when we have some spare time between the classes"

"And then you forget to eat, seriously stop wasting your lunchtime on that stuff, you're losing all of that precious muscle mass you worked years for" She rolled her eyes,

"I'd rather be losing weight than my grades" I shrugged, knowing my habits were unhealthy but I needed to pass these classes to get a decent degree.

"I'd rather you be healthy then fainting from malnutrition" She pinched my side making me jump.

"Ow, fine, I'll try to multitask" I sighed and scooted a bit away from her.

after that, we mostly walked in silence until we reached the main building of our university, we had to pass the field usually used as practice for our outdoor sports teams, it seems like the soccer team got there first, since we had nothing better to do we decided to watch them for a while, Yuri leaned on me for warmth as we sat at the top of the bleachers. I narrowed at my eyes at the players, something felt different about them this year but I couldn't think of what it was, it definitely wasn't new uniforms as they haven't been updated since before I was born, they were just... playing better?

"Oh yeah, they got a new player, some exchange student that was supposed to help them win this season" Yuri commented, probably seeing I was confused.

"New player huh? well if he's already making a difference then I'm sure something is going to happen" I leaned on the seat behind me and shoved my hands in my hoodie pocket.

As we watched I started to space out, thinking about whatever until I heard a muffled yell that sounded like Yuri before I was smacked out my daze, literally.

After I came to when I very quickly blacked out I could see the soccer team surrounding me along with Yuri with a warm liquid running down my nose like a faucet, one of the players was holding the ball nervously and also like he was about to puke, another was kneeling next to me I assume to make sure I was okay, "Hey, how many fingers am I holding up?"

"Uhhh, three" I croaked, my throat suddenly dry.

"Yeah he should be fine, someone hand him a towel before we have to really get worried" He said, standing up.

I touched my upper lip and saw blood when I pulled my fingers back, then looked at the ball in the first guy's hand to notice it was covered, now realizing why he was about to puke.

"Hey man, I'm so sorry" A deep voice sounded in my ear as a pure white towel came into my view.

I looked up and my breath was taken away, black curly hair that was pulled back into a ponytail with a few stubborn strands sticking to his face, worried earthy brown eyes staring deep into my boring ones, acne scars hiding under ever so lightly tanned skin, he almost looked like an older version of...

"Mason?"

"Now isn't time for the guessing game- wait, what did you say?"

"Mason McLester? Metal teeth Mason?"

He pressed the towel against my nose tired on waiting for me to grab it while studying my features, giving me a once over from the top of my head to the bottom of my torso where he was almost sitting on my lap and gave me a toothy grin revealing a chipped tooth that was never fixed, "Felix you bastard"

"I knew it! You look... almost exactly the same actually"

"I couldn't say the same, if you didn't say something I'd pass you off as another bloke" He made me hold the towel then got off me "don't you leave me again, practice is just about over so we can catch up in a few minutes"

"Okay, I'll be here"

"Come on boys before the coach thinks we killed him" Mason said as he jogged down the stairs.

"What a reunion huh?" Yuri sat next to me again. looking displeased at my shirt.

"What do you mean? it's just a bloody nose" I shrugged.

"He was the one who kicked the ball you ditz, if you weren't busy daydreaming maybe you wouldn't have a bloody nose" She teased.

"Oh" I swallowed thickly looking at the field, it seemed the coach had canceled the rest of the practice as they headed for the showers "what exactly happened?"

"Your metal teeth Mason kicked the ball too hard in the wrong direction and it hit the corner of the net, which instead of going back where it came made the ball change angles towards us, or at you, I moved as soon as it left his foot"

"And it didn't occur to you to maybe shove me out the way?"

"With all those pounds you lost you're still heavy as hell, plus I wouldn't want to send you falling down the bleachers, that's worse" She huffed.

"I'm not heavy, you just never seem to do arm day" I rolled my eyes.

Before she could argue with me Mason came jogging up the stairs, "Great you're still here and not passed out from blood lose"

"We should probably go to the nurse now" I pointed out.

"Shit yeah that's a good idea" He grabbed my arm pulling me up.

As we walked out the practice area I looked Mason up and down for probably the first time amazed by how much he changed yet so little, his nose was the same, his smile was the same, his hair was the same but longer, honestly, the only thing that changed was that he was taller, had a slightly more athletic build and he was finally to tan a bit without being sunburned to death, probably from excessive amounts of playing soccer outside, if that was what he was doing all these years, "Are you sure I haven't changed much? Because you're staring at me like a foreigner"

"No, really you look almost identical to your younger self it's just we haven't spoken since middle school"

"I know, we finally look like men" He nudged me then ran a hand through his hair that was still dripping wet, just showing how little time he took in there "though I see you still kept that fuckboy cut"

"What about my hair says fuckboy?" I raised a brow.

"Everything, you know those teen fiction movies where the player has the swoop? You have exactly that"

"It's a popular style you ass" I laughed.

"though seriously dude, I'm glad you're still alive after over four years, even though I almost knocked you out" He put an arm around my shoulder as we walked, it was slightly awkward since he was still shorter than me but we didn't pay mind to that fact "And I see you scored lucky in the dating department"

I followed his gaze to Yuri who was pouting with her arms crossed feeling left out, "Her? No we're just friends"

"Really? With a beauty like her?"

"Yeah, she swings for her own team" I shrugged, Yuri wouldn't be my type anyway, she was too much of a mix of motherly and a little sister for me.

"Ah" Mason looked back in front of us again.

I ruffled Yuri's hair and she pouted more swatting my hand away, "Hey don't start getting jealous we're just catching up"

"I'm not jealous" She denied, in a pretty obvious jealous tone "You two have fun chatting, I need to head to class"

with that she walked off leaving me and Mason alone I just shrugged, "she's usually friendlier"

"it's fine I can always talk to her when we next bump into each other" he took his arm off me to open the door to the nurse's office.

"Oh and about your earlier statement, what about you? Seeing anyone?"

"Not out the moment, trying to focus on myself until I find the right person, almost everyone at my old uni couldn't keep their pants on so I've been single a few years" 

"That sucks" I said as I sat on the little table thing in the middle of the room.

"Not really, getting cheated on sucks more" He shrugged.

"I guess that's true"

________________________________________________________________________________ A month later

"Hey Felix, you got any more sodas? Coach was trying to see how hard it would be to make us faint today"

"Yeah they're in the fridge" I didn't look up from my book as I heard the bathroom door open and the sound of bare feet on hardwood. 

"Hey Felix"

"Yeah?"

"When are you going to put the book down and pay attention to me eh? You were the one who invited me here"

I looked up at him just as he pulled his shirt up to wipe the sweat off his face and I gulped, quickly looking back down and shifted my legs on my bed, it was clear that after a month of this very grown Mason I still wasn't over my crush on him, in fact I think being around him while he's like this is just making it worse as he was no longer the innocent pure middle schooler, "In a moment, I'd like to not have to cram for this test coming"

"You always were the bigger nerd, no one ever believed that" 

I looked up again to give a witty remark but my words got caught in my throat when I saw him in his glasses, they looked like the same ones from when he was twelve but I knew he had to change his prescription a few times over the years, it seemed like he finally grew into them and they complimented his face intensely, I knew he had been wearing contacts for a while now because of soccer practice but I wasn't expecting him to take them out, "Aye Felix, we aren't kids anymore, it's considered rude to stare" he used air quotes around the third to last word as if it wasn't true.

"O-oh sorry, you just caught me off guard"

"What? It's nothing you haven't seen before" He teased while rolling his eyes and turning away from me so he could chug down a cold sprite, how his throat didn't burn to the point he coughed I had no idea.

I was going to go back to studying when a hand came out and grabbed the book gently pulling it out my grasp and I let it, my breath caught in my throat as I saw Mason's face an inch away from mine, his arm next to me as he leaned over to support his weight, I was pushed back into the same feelings as middle school me when he got this close, my heart beating in my ears as I felt them heat up, I wanted to back up but I was captured by those mesmerizing eyes, "Felix?"

"Y-yeah Mason?" I managed.

"Pay attention to me damnit" He said lowly, almost growling.

All I could do was nod as my voice disappeared and my arms were becoming jelly, He suddenly smiled and flopped on me making me go from leaning on my hands to leaning on my elbows as his chin rested on my chest smiling at me like a cheshire cat, "I can't believe how easy that still is, I thought you'd be annoyed"

"I can't exactly be annoyed" I looked away from him trying to compose myself "When you came over expecting to hang out"

I felt him trace the shell of my ear making goosebumps rise on my skin, I had to close my eyes to suppress the shiver that wanted to run down my spine

"Your ears always got red around me when we were younger, it was always cool to me"

"Glad you like it" I mumbled, wanting to get him off me so I can calm down but I didn't want to be rude or raise suspicion.

He paused, his finger stopping at my silver piercing next to my lobe, it was quiet for way longer than I liked when he finally asked "Why were you always red around me? all that blood in your face constantly probably isn't very healthy"

I wondered if I should tell him, it had only been a month and I did want him to be weirded out, I decided to just come out with the truth, "Because I liked you, a lot.."

".....And now?"

I looked down at him shocked, he seemed to curious with a hint of something else, I swallowed thickly and told myself if he leaves it's probably for the best, "My feelings seemed to have...resurfaced...."

Mason moved until out faces were one inch away from each again and the sound of my heartbeat what the only thing I could hear out of both fear and infatuation, He closed his eyes and tilted his head, scooting closer until finally he gave me a test peck making me freeze, he gave another slightly long one and this time I reacted, letting my back fall onto my bed as I pulled him up more so he was sitting on my lap then wrapped my arm under his ass like when you're carrying someone, I grabbed a fistful of his hair and smashed his lips on mine littering his mouth with kisses until our lungs burned then looked at him with hooded eyes, he looked like he had just gotten wasted and was giving me a cocky smirk, "What was that?" I asked in a soft whisper.

"Me saying I love you too and you" He traced his finger along my jaw following it with his eyes as he laid his head on my chest, looking back up at me through his long lashes "Hopefully accepting it?"

"Jeez, are you always this riddle-y when asking someone out?" I chuckled.

He blushed, just a very faint pink on his cheeks, it wasn't as cute as his full body blushes but it was a sight to see still with him all grown and getting tongue-tied like a high school freshman, "Maybe, so what's your answer?"

I sighed and kissed his forehead with a smile, "Yes I'll date you, you goof"

A face splitting grin appeared on his face at my answer and he snuggled into me, it was a comfortable silence for a moment before he suddenly got up on all fours looking at me like he was about to tease the hell out of me, "Now that we're boyfriends I can finally confirm"

"Confirm what?" I raised a brow.

"That you're just very happy to see me and it's not just hormones"

I froze for a moment before my entire face went flamming hot and I pulled him so he was laying on me again then buried my face in his hair cursing, Mason just chuckled.