Zak's dark chocolate eyes widened as they rested on the familiar, pale and bandaged hand stretched out on his side, steady in midair.
Without hesitating another second, he abruptly turned towards the owner, speechless at the sight of a tired but smiley Darryl, all dressed up into a black suit and a red tie.

The short boy didn't lose any second checking him out, and immediately threw himself into his arms as he squealed Darryl's name.

"Oh my God! Tell me I'm not dreaming and you're actually here, please." he nearly sobbed, his face buried in the small space in the between of his neck and shoulder and his legs wrapped around the blonde boy's waist.

"I'm here, Zak. I'm here." the other softly replied, reassuringly caressing his back. "I'm so, so sorry... I really am. Forgive me, please..." he begged, holding into the smaller boy.

"I forgive you." Zak whispered before partially breaking the hug, his hand now cupping Darryl's face. "You're here now, it's all that matters."

Their foreheads leaned onto each other, and only then the raven-haired boy noticed the dark circles under his eyes, evidencing his shiny emeralds.

At Zak's soft smile widening across his lips, Darryl's lower lip started to tremble lightly.

"Oh, God." Darryl murmured, hugging back the younger boy and carefully tightening his arms around him, afraid to lose him. "You have no idea how much I love you, you muffin top..."

Only after sighing happily and after lifting his eyes up Zak noticed Harvey standing not too far away from them, all smiley and proud. In fact, he immediately mouthed 'I told u.' as he rose two thumbs up.
Before he could turn on himself and make his way back to the school gym, the Junior thanked him with a grateful smile.

"I can't help but excuse myself, Zak..." he felt Darryl's warm breath slam against his ear, his voice sounding agonizingly mortified. "I was so scared and... Ashamed of myself. I just wanted to disappear, and I acted so selfishly thinking only about myself that I left you behind in position way worse than mine..."

"It's okay, really." the younger replied, his voice squeaking slightly. His small hand caressed his head through his blonde hair. "I understand."

The two didn't want to let go of each other, both too scared to lose the other as soon as they would break the hug.

"What you said yesterday was awesome. I'm so proud of you." the older suddenly mumbled, caressing softly Zak's back.

Starting off with a confused frown, the baseball player widened his eyes and partially parted the hug.
Their eyes met immediately, and he fought not to lose himself into his emerald ones.

"You- You were there?!" his squeaky voice questioned as his eyebrows furrowed ulteriorly.

"Oh, I thought you saw... A lot of people filmed your speech and posted it on Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat..." Darryl explained, halting a moment to move a tuft of raven hair away from Zak's eyes.

"And a lot of people also tagged me under the videos and in the comments section to make me see it. Most of them were telling me not to let go of an awesome and brave human being like you..." he continued with a soft and loving smile printed on his lips, nonetheless, his eyes didn't resist and wandered away from his chocolate ones. "And only then I realized how dumb and useless hiding in my room was."

Zak arched his eyebrows as he smiled softly at his explanation, then cupped his face with his cold hands again.

"Hey..." he reassuringly started, waiting for Darryl to look back at him before continuing. "You needed time for yourself, it's not dumb at all." his smile widened. "I love you, okay?"

In reply, the blonde boy smiled back, pulling the shorter closer to himself.

"I love you too, Zak." even without seeing it, he could feel his smile widening even more. "You have no idea how much."

"Darryl?" the other recalled quietly, soon afterward a small moment of silent and comfortable hugging.

"Yes, my little muffin?"

Feeling the ground back under his feet, Zak broke the hug, his arms not untangling from around Darryl's waist, and so he remained wrapped around his torso.

The shorter looked up at him, their eyes shining under the bright full moon upon them.

"I'm healing. Slowly but I am, and you will too." Zak shifted on his feet as he continued, then pulled himself closer to him. "Never give up on yourself. And don't say you already did, because I know you didn't. And as I did, I want you to fight this." his soft smile grew wider. "With me."

Darryl arched his eyebrow, smiling through his glossy emerald eyes.

"We'll heal together, and we'll heal each other, okay?"

"Yeah..."

"And... Please," Zak swallowed anxiously as suddenly a knot appeared in his throat, preventing him from breathing normally. "please, promise me you won't leave me ever again."

"I promise, I won't." he replied, giving him a kiss on the top of his head as he smiled reassuringly.

Zak smiled back and, tiptoeing, he gave back a small kiss on his cheek, before hugging him tightly.

"I love you, Darryl."

"I love you too, Zak." they were both over the moon, and couldn't help but smile like two idiots. "I love you endlessly."

Like two idiots in love.

Staring blankly at the pinkish beverage waving inside his plastic cup, Mega sighed out of boredom.
His dark brown eyes detached from the item in his hand, instinctively searching for some sort of distraction.

He was secretly hoping for Harvey to get back as soon as possible, since he was already missing his dumb finger guns and idiotic puns. Not to mention his grin, always printed on his stupid lips

Sappy couples were slow dancing in front of him on the dance floor, along with the soft music which still managed to muffle everyone's voices.

Rolling his eyes with disgust, he let them wander away from the students on the surroundings.
Eventually, they halted at the sight of a startling scene happening on the opposite side of the hall.

There was Dave, holding on his red cup, carefully listening to what Vincent was whispering to his ear, his hand covering the side of his mouth like a toddler would.
A smirk gradually grew on the Senior's lips as he slowly nodded in agreement to whatever the French bot was confiding him.

At the scene, Mega's face slightly scrunched up as a frown formed on his face, his eyes narrowing on the ambiguous duo.

'Fuck, can you uncover your fucking mouth? I need to know what the hell you're saying to that idiot.' he spat in his head, anxiously gritting his teeth together.

Unexpectedly, soon afterward Dave moved his lips as he replied to Vincent, clearly pronouncing Zak's name.

Some sort of panic grew exponentially in seconds inside the mute boy, causing to his breath to hitch in his throat as he tried to keep his breathing regular.
He bit the inside of his cheek, frustrated at his inability to read the whole response given by the despised Senior.

Spirals of messy thoughts hit Mega all in once for the first time since that night where Zak got drunk, making him unable to focus on anything.

No matter how hard he tried to schematically think of a plausible and positive reason why those two would talk about Zak, he could only come up with potentially critical situations and scenarios.

With his hand, he promptly reached the pocket where his phone should've been, and a frustrated groan escaped from his mouth as he realized Harvey never gave it back.

Ulteriorly frustrated, the short boy turned on himself, ready to go and search of his friend, ending up crashing right into him.

"Hi!" Harvey's voice chirped as Mega took a step back from him, he masked up to perfection how anxious he was. "Were you seriously about to leave without me?" he asked, exaggerating his fake pout.

Stretching out his hand, Mega groaned as he stared at the taller boy. With that, he gained a confused frown in return.

"Uh, what?" Harvey questioned, clueless.

The smaller Sophomore rose an eyebrow, staying still.

Seconds later, Harvey's confused glance landed back down on the hand.
Then, as Mega would expect from an idiot like him, he hesitantly shook it.

A facepalm and a slow shake of head replied to his misunderstanding.

"What?!" the other grumbled, trying his best not to laugh at the confusing situation.

With a huff, Mega tightened the grab on Harvey's and pulled the taller closer to him, grabbing his phone out of the front pocket of his suit.

"Oh-"

«Idiot.»

A flustered grin grew on the older boy, who couldn't hold it together and snorted at his own stupidity.

Mega pushed him friendly as he scoffed at him, smirking behind his scarf.

«So? You sure took your sweet time, uh?» he teased as he met the dark eyes of the other.

"What! What do you mean?! I was just enjoying the romance-novel-worthy gay reunion between those two dumbos!" Harvey marked with dreamy and shiny eyes.

"Ugh." the other groaned disgusted, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms over his chest.

His friend ignored his negative reaction by scanning the hall which was slowly getting emptier, then checked out the clock hanging on the wall.

"Oh. It's getting pretty late and boring here, now." he stated, looking back at the short boy. His smile spontaneously softened. "Wanna come over? My parents are still away, we can play Minecraft all night. It's gonna be huge!"

«Nah. I'd have to ask my stupid mother first, and it'd be a mess.»

"Psh, admit you're just scared of me destroying you once again." the other teased, grinning as Mega glared at him.

«Admit you only play UHC with me because you know I'd destroy your ass in bedwars.» he bit back, smirking lightly at his friend's taken aback expression.

"Touché." Harvey replied, now chuckling.

The two silently agreed on leaving and walking to Harvey's house, like they always did in the past few days.
Mega would always walk his friend home, and after chatting with him for a pair of other minutes on the front door of his house, he would go to his own, just a few blocks away.

"Mega?" Harvey suddenly murmured without looking away from the cemented floor, breaking the silence.

After noticing the short boy turning his head towards him with the tail of the eye, he continued.

"I don't know why but, I just can't stop thinking about something... What if between Zak and Darryl things won't work out? Like, what if Darryl really did something awful two years ago and, I don't know, he hasn't changed?" he blurted out without thinking twice.

A frown welcomed his messy reasoning.

"I mean..." the older continued, sighing silently. "You saw how badly Zak did without him. What if..." he quickly swallowed anxiously at the thoughts spiraling into his head. "What if Darryl hasn't healed yet and, I don't know, tells Zak's he's not ready and leaves him again and-"

Not bearing with the flow of words, Mega slammed the back of his hand against Harvey's chest, halting his and his own walk.

«It's none of our business. It's all between them and only them. And, c'mon, you can't tell me Zak didn't recover amazingly after his last relapse, and he did it without Darryl.» the short one pointed out, raising an eyebrow.

Harvey stared at his friend uneasily, not convinced. Even his grin didn't give a single hint of reappearing on his lips.

Rolling his eyes at his unbearable gaze, Mega's thumbs quickly danced on the keyboard on the screen of his phone.

«What I'm tryna say is: as long as we don't leave him behind, he's gonna be fine. Trust me.» he reassured, leaning a hand on his shoulder.

The older sighed in reply, his eyes falling back on the cemented floor.

"Yeah. You're right, I guess." he mumbled, biting his lower lip with frustration.

Mega frowned at the scene. Seeing the, somehow, most important person in his life like that disturbed him.

«You're seriously scaring me, Harvey. The fuck happened? You're always all positive and shit, and now all of a sudden you're letting other people's problems bring you down?» he questioned, genuinely concerned.

In response, Harvey avoided eye contact, as if Mega would end up reading through his mind even by looking into his eyes just for a split of a second.

«Look, I might be an ass, but I'm here for you as you are for me and Zak. Get this in your head. You're not alone either.» the shorter spat, almost angry at him closing in himself.

"It's nothing, really." Harvey stubbornly insisted, still looking away.

Groaning at his obstinacy, Mega restarted walking with a frustrated huff and left him behind.

«Whatever. If you wanna talk about anything that's going through your microscopic brain, I'll be here. Always.» the other noticed without stopping or even glancing at the concerned one.

Harvey smiled lightly at his assertion and, for a moment, stared at the short boy with affection, before catching up with him.

"Thank you, Mega." he thanked, leaning a hand on the top of his head. He was the type of person who hated any human contact and would distance himself if touched, but this time, he clearly smiled behind his balaclava.

They walked at their own slow pace, one beside the other, enjoying each other's company.

"Remember our first interaction, Mega?" Harvey unexpectedly questioned with his soft smirk widening on his lips. He didn't wait for a reply before continuing. "It was one of the first weeks of school, last year. I bumped into you in the hallways, and you said, and I quote, "Watch where you're going, ching chong."" he tried not to laugh, partially succeeding.

The shorter boy groaned as the memory flashed before his eyes.

«You have no idea how bad I'm cringing, right now.» the boy replied, his face scrunched into a bothered grimace.

"Oh! And the same week we bumped into each other again at Zelk's party, and-" Harvey stopped as he attempted to resist the urge to laugh. His eyes searched for Mega's, getting welcomed by his glare, clearly begging him not to continue. "And you said "I get you have small ass eyes, but learn to look where the fuck you walk, stupid ching chong."" he continued, laughing once he finishing his sentence.

«Jesus Christ, I remember Zak forcing me to excuse myself after I ranted about you to him.» he added, inhaling sharply, cringing at his old self.

"And you were so convinced I was in the wrong that you faked it by walking to me, staring at me dead in the eyes, telling me to fuck off and walk back to Zak, who was all proud of yourself and completely clueless." the other continued, laughing. "God, I genuinely thought you two ganged up against me for some reason!"

«Ugh, I was so fucking cringe.» Mega grumbled, shaking his head with disappointment. «I hope I'm not as delusional as I was last year.»

Harvey grinned proudly as he pulled the other closer to him, wrapping his arm around his shoulders into a side hug.

"You ain't, you dumbo! Y'know, I was just thinking about it earlier, about how much you changed." his soft smirk grew wider. "For the better, obviously."

«Did I, though?» he questioned, doubtful.

With a nod, the other messed up his brown hair.

"You're an awsome fella, Mega. I'm glad you opened up to me, I really am. Since then you improved so much!"

Overwhelmed with unusually happy emotions taking over his numbness, the younger pushed Harvey away
with fear that he might notice his smile.

«Cheesy ass idiot.»

"What?! You asked for it!" the Asian boy objected, snickering along with him.

A pleasant silence ascended back over the two, who kept walking in Harvey's house direction, finally spotting it in the distance.

«Harvey?» Mega recalled his attention as he walked up to the stairs which brought to the front door.

"Mh?" he hummed in reply, turning towards him.

«I may or may not have changed my mind. Is... Is the invite still valid?» he questioned almost sheepishly, fixing his scarf.

Harvey's eyes instantly light up, his smile now even wider.

"Of course you can, you dumbo." he replied, opening the door and holding it open as the shorter walked in.

«Sick. Get ready to get your ass destroyed in bedwars, then!» he warned, walking backward into the house to enjoy Harvey's reaction.

"Psh, wait for it!" he talked back, closing the door and quickly approaching him and giving him a friendly push.

Both were genuinely happy about how unbelievably good that day was.

The homecoming dance was awesome, and finally, Zak and Darryl were back together.

And to top it off, both were ready to pass an awesome night with their favorite person on Earth.

Moonbeams caressed the two boys laying on the carpeted floor of their apartment by the closed french window.

Outside the temperature was awfully low, so they decided to stargaze from there, still in their suits.

Darryl had one arm wrapped around the younger boy's waist, while the opposite hand tenderly ran his fingers through his raven hair.

Enjoying the warmth and comforting caresses from the blonde boy, Zak had his face buried into his chest.

"So, Zak... Uhm..." the other hesitantly started, biting the inside of his cheek out of anxiety. "How did you... Er, how..."

Frowning lightly, the shorter boy rose his head, finding himself lost in his emerald eyes.

"Are you... Trying to ask me how did I spend these days without you...?" he attempted to guess.

Darryl stayed silent, hesitating excessively before nodding.

"Obviously, I missed you so much. The first days I barely left the dorm, and when I did, things happened and..." he buried his face deeper in his chest as he clenched his teeth, feeling some sort of cringe at the memories. "I had an awful relapse. Luckily, Mega and Harvey helped me a lot, and thanks to them I'm starting to recover." he smiled softly.

The older boy smiled lightly, with a clear hint of regret and guilt in his eyes.

"You relapsed because of me, didn't you..?" he dared to ask, holding his breath.

This time the one hesitating was Zak.

"I mean... Yes. But if I didn't, I'd still be stuck in that limbo. I never recovered this much, and without that relapse, I'm one hundred percent sure things would be even worse, by now." he explained, raising his head once he ended the sentence. "So, don't feel guilty, okay?" he smiled reassuringly. "Oh! I didn't tell you but now I can look into the mirror with almost no problems! And I'm also slowly improving with my eating problems! And I'm also a few days clean!"

Darryl gasped, staring at him agape.

"Oh my goodness! Are you serious?!" he asked, his eyes lighting up at Zak's nod. "Oh God, I'm sooo proud of you, you actually have no idea how much..!"

The hugs tightened, and they leaned their foreheads against each other, both smiling happily.

"I'm so happy you're here, now." Zak murmured, lost in Darryl's emerald eyes.

At that statement, the smile on the blonde boy's lips became forced, then faded away.

"Do you really want to go on and act as nothing happened?" he suddenly asked, arching his eyebrows. "I mean... I literally left you alone in the worst time possible and... I feel, terrible. How can you forgive me this easily?"

Zak stared at him for a long moment, struggling to formulate an adequate reply to that unexpected question.
Sighing, he broke eye contact.

"I put you in that awful position, so, I guess it's both our fault. It's not only yours. And..." he looked back up, smiling lightly. "I really, really don't want to lose you again."

In response, Darryl sighed lightly, forcing himself to arch his lips into a small smile.

"But you're not gonna tell me why you did that, are you?" he abruptly added, his expression turning into a mixture of concern and seriousness. "And so you're not even gonna tell me what happened two years ago either, am I right?"

Once again, the older boy's expression changed. He avoided eye contact, looking sorry and tense.

To his surprise, Zak smiled softly and reassuringly to him, tightening the hug.

"It's okay, I'll wait!" he exclaimed, cupping his face with both his somehow cold hands. "Take as much time as you need, okay?"

He buried his face back into Darryl's chest, pulling himself as close as possible to him.

"Whatever happened, happened, and past will remain in the past." the raven-haired boy continued with a reassuring and soft tone of voice. "I won't judge you for whatever you've done, and it won't change anything anyway because I'm sure you're another person, now."

Two arms encircled around Zak as he got pulled even closer. He felt Darryl's chin carefully leaning on the top of his head.

"And, this person is so awesome that-" the short boy blocked himself, hesitating on whether to finish the sentence or not. He took a deep breath, then pushed himself to say it. "That made me fall in love."

Regret made Zak sick as he could clearly feel Darryl tensing up at the end of his sentence. He didn't dare to look up at him, and simply hid his face in his own sleeves.

"Shit- I'm so sorry, I, ugh" he mumbled flustered, totally not panicking at his obvious reveal. "I'm rushing this, I'm so sorry- I should've-"

"Hey," Darryl reassuring voice called. He clearly wasn't able to hide the undertone of panic in it. "It's okay, I..."

Hesitating, he moved Zak's hands away from his face.

"I love you too! I love you so so so much, I really mean it!" he exclaimed, his expression looking sorrier than anything else.

"But there's a but, it's obvious." the other murmured, looking away.

"There... There is. I just need a little more time to heal, then I'll be all yours, I promise." Darryl admitted, printing a kiss on his forehead. "But this doesn't change the way I feel for you, okay?"

In reply, Zak nodded slowly and buried his face back into his chest.

"Soon, you'll understand better why I'm feeling this way. I promise."

The shorter boy smiled as he pulled him closer by tightening the hug.

"Darryl?" Zak suddenly recalled, raising his head to look at him in his beautiful eyes. "I'm proud of you too."

Their foreheads leaned against each other again, and the blonde boy smiled brightly.

"Thank you so much, Zak. I love you." he whispered, nearly frightened at the idea of the short boy not understanding that all his 'I love you.' were only for him.

Zak's eyes were shining like never before. The sides of his mouth curved into the kind of smile that always drove Darryl crazy.

"I love you too. I love you endlessly."

The kind smile that would be cruel not to kiss.

[unedited; 3897 words.]
I'm so sorry for the
low-quality chapter.