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“And that’s Orion’s Belt!” Caleb was gesturing wildly with one arm as he dragged Matthew along with the other. Lucas was walking sedately, slight behind them.
“They just look like a bunch of dots to me,” Lucas spoke with feigned indifference, a fond smile betraying his true emotions.
“You’ve been hanging out too much with your brother,” Caleb rolled his eyes heavily.
“Amen to that,” Matthew huffed in exasperation.
Lucas’ lips twitched in amusement.
“He’s been teaching me about ‘the bees’.”
Caleb’s hand met his forehead.
“He never stops does he? They’re billions of individual stars, not just ‘the bees’.”
“Is this really necessary?” Matthew butted in grouchily.
“Yes!” Was Caleb’s offended reply.
“You’ve been inside for weeks.” Lucas backed the other up.
“Maybe I would have been outside sooner if you two hadn’t forced me to bed.”
“You hadn’t slept for days.” Lucas’ reply came with a very unimpressed raised eyebrow.
“Ooooh, you got eyebrowed!” Caleb let go of Matthew to flail his arms dramatically, an amused grin splitting his face.
Matthew shoved the distracted man playfully, causing him to fall in the grass with a loud thump and a surprised squawk.
“Rude!” Coyote exclaimed. “Lucaaaaaas, help me up.”
The blonde snorted at the two of them, hands remaining firmly in his trouser pockets. His eyebrow directed itself to scolding both of them.
“Fine, fine. I’m sorry. Yes, I wasn’t taking care of myself.” Matthew conceded, their resolve broken down by Caleb’s wide brown puppy dog eyes. They reached a hand down to help the other up. For a moment their hands met before a mischievous glint in Caleb’s eyes made Matthew try to jerk back. It was, however too late and Matthew was pulled down to land half on top of the other teen.
Lucas actually laughed out loud that time. The sound ragged from a healing sore throat, but pure in its’ joy.
It was that moment that a burst of fireworks exploded overhead, blue, greens, reds and golds painting the sky and joining the twinkling silver of the stars.
Lucas made a strangled yelping sound and leapt back, his eyes squeezing shut in response to the unexpected bright lights.
Matthew took in sharp breath of surprise, but otherwise remained quiet. They rolled off Caleb, nearly tripping on their tangled limbs as they tried to get to their feet.
Caleb’s response was the most dramatic.
“What the flipping fudgesicles!!!” He yelled in shock. He gave Matthew a shove to help them up out of the tangle of their limbs. Coyote himself tripped when he tried to get his feet under him. He ended up falling forwards and getting a face full of grass.
Matthew and Lucas shared a longsuffering look of exasperation at their boyfriend's antics. Being used to it didn't make it his dramatic reactions and baffling swear choices any less ridiculous.
Caleb rolled over onto his back and spat out a mouthful of grass.
"Ugh, salad," he grumbled.
The usually stoic Matthew snorted at that and cracked a grin at their other boyfriend.
Unable to hold himself back, so soon after his other laughing fit, Lucas broke down into giggles. He dropped to his knees next to his boyfriend, his balance having been compromised by his gasping laughs.
Matthew rolled their eyes in a dramatic show of their disapproval of these uncouth actions, their lips pressed tightly together to prevent them from joining the laughter.
Caleb looked up at his partners, not bothering to move from the ground further than that.
"You are both rude," he complained huffily.
"Your face at those fireworks," Lucas snickered.
"They were surprising!" Caleb pouted a blindly flailed his hand at Lucas, catching the kneeling man in the arm.
Lucas snorted and moved to cross his legs, aware that he'd probably end up knocked over soon if he didn't stabilise himself.
“Besides, Matthew was just as bad,” Caleb complained.
“Hey, do not bring me into your discourse,” Matthew argued, trying and failing to maintain a straight face under the gaze of both their boyfriends.
Lucas smirked through his continued giggles and snorts, an idea dawning in his mind. It may not be original, but why fix what isn’t broken?
Lucas nudged a foot against Caleb’s shoulder and when he looked up, grinned conspiratorially at him. The smile was almost immediately returned with one of even greater menace.
Seeing the exchange, Matthew took a step back and eyed the two of them dubiously.
“No. I do not know what you two intend to do this time-,” they began.
“Intend to do?” Lucas questioned with a smirk.
“I’m sure we don’t know what you mean,” Caleb agreed, falsely diplomatic as he pushed himself up onto his knees so as to better meet his partner’s eyes and convey his total and utter earnestness.
Matthew was not convinced for a second. They took two more steps back.
“If you two try anything,” they warned, pointing an accusing finger between them.
“What ever would we try?” Lucas snickered, wobbling back to his feet.
“Your accusations hurt me deep inside my dear,” Caleb smirked, patting a hand on his chest in demonstration.
Matthew flushed, but refused to be swayed by something as simple as a pet name.
“You forget that I know the two of you,” they deadpanned.
“Wow, you’re so mean, I never knew you were so mean,” Caleb whined pathetically and held his hands out to Lucas in a wordless request to be helped up.
Lucas took his hands and pulled the taller back to his feet, almost stumbling over the weight.
Matthew retreated further, intelligent enough to be wary of the two pranksters. As much as Lucas liked to pretend he was mature and above Caleb’s dramatics, they knew it was just a front.
“Don’t you dare,” Matthew warned as Caleb and Lucas both turned to face them, providing a united front.
As if the words were a cue, both men bolted forwards.
Matthew yelped and raced to the left in a futile attempt to escape.
The three ran across the field, grass lashing at their ankles for a full six seconds as Matthew made their best attempt to outpace their boyfriends.
The chase ended with Caleb first barrelling into Matthew and beginning their tumble to the earth, closely followed Lucas dropping with them.
“Ugh,” Matthew shoved weakly from the bottom of the pile.
“Get off.”
Lucas shuffled aside, one foot still tangled with Matthew’s.
Now with their arms free, Matthew gave Caleb a mighty shove.
“Whoa!” the brunette exclaimed, thumping to the side, one arm still awkwardly trapped under his partner’s back.
“You’re heavy,” Matthew grumbled.
“Oooh, you used a contraction,” Caleb snickered.
“You two wear me down. It is- It’s impossible to survive you unchanged.”
Lucas started to snicker again, joining Caleb in amusement.
Matthew tutted superiorly.
“Oh, come on, Matthew,” Lucas cajoled.
They finally gave in a started to laugh.
“You two are ridiculous,” they snorted “I was just studying.”
“Nuhuh,” Caleb pouted.
“Lot of energy drinks there for ‘just studying’,” Lucas pointed out in amused exasperation.
“Idiots,” Matthew persisted, unable to stop giggling.
“Your idiots,” Caleb grinned, tangling one of his feet with the mess of Matthew and Lucas’.
"My idiots,” Matthew agreed.
The three’s laughter echoed into the night and onto the wind.