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Nick slumps at his desk. It’s been 3 weeks since the Raid. Since he and Benji officially started dating. They officially got together the day after, Nick asked Benji to be his boyfriend. And he still hasn’t taken him on a DATE!?
He groans.
“Whats wrong?” Erin walks over. “Trouble in paradise?”
“Yes…” Nick pouts, “we’ve been together for 3 weeks and have slept in the same bed, and cuddled a bit and share some words of affection but I haven’t taken him on a proper date, and he hasn’t ether.” He looks at her. “And if I take him on a date I wanna make it perfect, he has done so much and he has gone through so much with his transformation, the raid, losing both his parents…Theo….”
“Maybe you can take him on like a picnic, or something you two can do together, my first date with my first boyfriend was a small cafe date.” She then clarifies. “Before the world ended.”
“Okay…” he looks at his beaded lizard, “I don’t think beaded lizard making will be the best, he got overwhelmed last time.”
“Maybe…” she thinks, “maybe you can take him on a nice picnic. I can even make the food for you.”
“You would really do that?” He shoots up and looks at her. She laughs.
“Of course!”
***
Erin left the food on the desk and Nick looked, 2 sandwiches. A ham sandwich for Nick and a BLT for Benji. 2 water bottles and 2 cups of fruit. Perfect for them. He places a trans beaded lizard on her desk with a thank you note.
He goes home. He practices what he is gonna say. ‘Benji, we’ve been together for a while and I wanna take you on an official date’ he went to the door and opened it. Benji was on the couch. He looked over.
“Hey Nick.” He smiled, his wings wrapped around him a bit. He looks really comfy. “What you got there?”
“Benji, we’ve been together for a while and I wanna take you on a real date,” Nick holds out the basket.
“Yes Nick.” Benji walked over and smiled. “This is so sweet.”
“Thank Erin for the food.” He offered a sleaze covered hand, Benji held it and Nick guided him to the most quiet bench of the whole city. He placed the food out.
“Thank you Nick.” Benji smiles bigger, showing all his teeth. Nick blushed and took down his mask to eat.
“How are you?”
“Fine.” Benji gestures to his clothes, he was covered in some paint. “I was repainting some of the walls, so I repainted the ‘Repent Sinner’, because…” Nick nodded, “you know….”
“Yeah….” Nick looked at his outfit, he worse a loose white shirt, his jacket and cargo pants, maybe he should have dressed nicer. He’s never worried about how he looks in clothes, as long as he was comfortable and nothing touched certain parts. Why doesn’t matter now? Benji doesn’t care, right?
“How was your day?” Benji pulled him out of the thoughts.
“Erin and I are working on trying to keep the Vanguard away, they took more territory because we claimed the university.” Nick remembers marking the map.
“What have they claimed?”
“The entire west part of the city.” Nick points to the west, “they wanna take more, they wanna take the entire south and east.”
“The old ALC is in the south.”
Nick nodded. This topic felt wrong for a date, or from what romcoms and books he’s seen, it’s often complements and touching and sometimes kissing.
Maybe he can try complementing his boyfriend, but on what? He then remembers the book shelf Benji organized in their home, he loved how it looked and how organized it was and now the colors were of Pride flags in the way he organized the covers.
“Um, off topic but I just wanna say I really liked how you set up the book shelf.” Nick avoids eye contact and puts his mask back up.
“Thank you,” Benji didn’t try to meet his eyes, knowing how Nick is probably feeling, “Nick, is something wrong? You’ve been acting…not yourself…”
“You can tell?” He peaked up. His hair covering his eyes a bit, “how?”
“You’ve been very tense, are you nervous?” Benji handed him some water.
“Yes!” Nick blurts out, “I wanna give you so much! You’ve gone through so much in just 2 months! I wanna be a good boyfriend like how you’ve been to me!”
Benji doesn’t do anything. He just leans in. Nick pulls away, Benji stops.
“Nick…” Benji starts, “you’ve done so much already, you healed my wing, you clean the house because I hate cleaning, you do so much for me.”
“But you saved my life.” Nick sounds like a little kid, like he is 10 and got in trouble.
“You saved mine,” Benji gestured to the beaded lizard on his belt loop, Nick didn’t even see it. The message that Benji was alive, then he crashed a wedding.
“You still have it?”
“Of course, it’s my most prized possession.” Benji opens his arms and offers Nick a hug and Nick crashes into his arms.
“I’m sorry.” Nick looked up.
“Don’t be,” Benji ran a hand through his hair, “it’ll be okay.”
“How did I get so lucky?” Nick looked up at him.
“I don’t know, how did I get so lucky?” Benji laughed and Nick laughed too.
Nick then handed Benji the sandwich, “wanna still?”
“Yes.” Benji and Nick then finished their food, not talking, just being close. Afterwards they were about to walk back but Nick stopped them.
“Stay here.” He winked and went to the river and picked a lily flower, he then came over, “lean down.” Benji did and Nick set it in a part of the horns.
“Nick…” Benji covered his face.
“Do you like it?”
“Fuck yes!” Benji laughed, Nick leaned in and kissed him, Benji paused. Nick blushed, it was different than a normal kiss. Benji’s fangs could cut his lip.
“How was that?”
“You’re a really good kisser,” Benji blushed, “did I cut your lip?”
“No, you didn’t.” Nick hid his face in Benji’s neck, “I’m cold let’s go home.”
“Okay.” The two walked home. Going in and sitting together on the couch, Nick reading one of the books to Benji, a medical document by Silas Berry.
They stayed like that for hours. Reading, or just sitting and looking at their ceiling. Or looking around. They have probably said a handful of words.
Few hours later Nick leans against Benji and drifts into a sleep, Benji blushes like crazy. He knows what he looks like when he’s asleep but this is so so so different. He is very handsome, his hair is in his face. Benji adjusts how he sits and closes his eyes.
“You’re enough Nick, more than enough.” He mumbles, Nick just mumbles something into his chest. “What?”
“Thank you Benji.” He looks up, “thank you for….everything.”
The End