Pocky
Anthony swung his arm back and forth like a crazed pirate singing a drunken jig. "Finding Twitter questions, finding Twitter questions. SmoshySilvi says 'Play the The Pocky Game!' I don't even know what that is, do you?" Anthony asked looking to Ian for answers. Unfortunately Ian was just as dumbfounded as him. "No clue, but I do have some Pocky though!" He placed the camera down on the table and raced into the kitchen, hastily pulling open a drawer. Anthony meanwhile began looking it up on his iPhone as Ian came back with the red box in hand. He sat back down and positioned the camera upright to film himself opening the silver package he pulled out of the box. "I really don't care what we have to do as long as I get to eat some of this stuff," Ian grinned as he pulled out a thin chocolate dipped stick.
Anthony suddenly furrowed his brows in a disgusted look as he kept his eyes fixated on the tiny screen in his hand. "Okay-wait. No. We are not doing this, dude," he grumbled with revulsion. Ian looked up at him questioningly with the camera facing him and wondering why he didn't want to play a game that sounded innocent enough. In fact it sounded downright tasty. "Why?" He simply asked. Anthony looked up with a do you really want to know look and shook his head.
"Apparently we're supposed to get a stick of Pocky and put each end in our mouths then eat until we kiss unless one of us pulls away first. I guess the person who pulls away first loses."
"Wait, seriously?" Ian asked with a curving smile.
Anthony began laughing at how ridiculous the game was, his already coral colored cheeks now a bright shade of red as he turned away laughing and shaking his head. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?!" He yelled to the camera through his fits of laughter. Ian was looking down at the package and biting his bottom lip then turned the camera towards himself suddenly. Anthony was still overcome with disbelief at the now awkward suggestion that he didn't even catch what Ian had said. "What'd you say?" He asked, his laughter pausing momentarily.
"I said I think we should play it!"
Anthony stared at him in shock then outraged disgust which quickly morphed back to a smile when he thought Ian might be joking. "What, really? Are you fucking serious?" Ian smiled up at him waving the stick in front of their faces. "Yeah. Why not? Afraid you'll lose?"
Anthony almost chocked on his own spit after the words left Ian's mouth. "No dude! It's the gayest thing ever!" He argued back but to no avail. Ian twirled the stick between two fingers.
"Only if we both win it is," He smirked back. "What's the matter? Afraid you'll accidentally... kiss me?"
There was nothing like Ian's cocky attitude that made Anthony's blood boil more especially when a challenge was involved. He glanced down at the package of Japanese biscuits then back at Ian.
"Fiiiiiiiine, we'll play the damn Pocky game!" He sighed bitterly. Ian laughed smugly and stood up, making his way toward his companion in the grey beanie and Princess Peach shirt.
The scene was pretty similar to the setup they did for their infamous staring contest; both boys sat in opposing chairs across from each other with their legs awkwardly positioned and bodies facing directly in front of each other. Then the nervous giggling began like a young Asian schoolgirl being acknowledged by her crush, only here we had two full grown men, one of which sheltered obvious insecurities about his own sexuality.
"Well then," Ian smiled with his bubbly camera persona to his nervously blushing video partner. "It's come down to this again!" Anthony laughed some more and Ian joined in amused at how anxious Anthony was getting. "Don't make me do this again, man," Anthony nearly begged making Ian roll his eyes. "Whatever. You ready yet?"
Anthony tried to reposition himself for the hundredth time and fidgeted. "Um, no..."
"Quit stalling." Ian propped the camera up on the table and placed the chocolate end of the stick between his lips. "Why do you get the chocolate end?" Anthony whined. Ian smirked and pulled the stick out of his mouth. "Alright, you can have the chocolate end I guess," he sighed holding the stick out that now glistening with a fresh coat of saliva towards Anthony's mouth making him blush and shove the stick away. "Gross! No!" He laughed as he swatted the biscuit away, breaking it and sending it to the floor. "Hey! I was gonna eat that!" Ian whimpered. "Well, ya still can!" Anthony snickered looking down at the bits on the ground. Ian shook his head and pulled out another stick. "Okay. Round 2 and this time don't break the frickin' stick!"
"Well then give me the chocolate side this time!" Anthony ordered. Ian turned the stick around and placed the un-coated side between his teeth. Anthony hesitantly placed his mouth on the other end. He realized his lips were only about four inches away from Ian's and he became flustered again. Ian appeared perfectly calm which definitely seemed to tick him off even more but he took a deep breath through his nostrils and nodded when Ian asked if he was ready.
All he could see was Ian's pale cerulean eyes gleaming back. Anthony swallowed and nodded. "Okay and...go!" The two began munching away and within mere seconds Anthony felt Ian's nose brush against his and he pulled back hard. "Gah!" He yelped as he nearly fell out of his chair but succeeding in getting a rise out of Ian. "Dude, chill out!" Ian laughed while still chewing the remnants of the chocolate biscuit. Anthony muttered something profane just out of earshot and scooted back into the chair. "Okay, you win. Can we please get back to the Twitter Questions?"
"Come on, you weren't even trying!" Ian complained. "Just one more time!" Ian pulled out another stick and lightly tapped him on the nose with it then on each side of his face. "S-stop," Anthony muttered as a slight rosy blush crept onto his cheeks. Ian grinned as he ignored his protests and tapped his chin then his lips with the stick. Anthony furiously chomped on the stick startling Ian into pulling his hand away and yelping. He snickered at Ian's sudden knee-jerk reaction and took out another one. "Come on Ian, don't dilly dally," Anthony said in a sing song voice mocking his enthusiasm from earlier. Ian huffed at Anthony's words, his lips curving into a crooked smile. "Douche," he grumbled getting close to the other end of the stick. They lined the stick up like before and were once again at eye level. An unannounced tension hung heavy in the air as the two boys remained eye to eye. "Alright. Ready...go," Ian began then started frantically munching away faster than before. Anthony didn't even have a chance to react this time because Ian was suddenly already through with the Pocky stick and in that moment all the breath seemed to leave his lungs as he felt for just a brief second a warm pair of lips crash against his own. Everything happened so fast like a gust of wind quickly bursting past him in one fell swoop and his wide mahogany stricken eyes watched as Ian shot a fist into the air cheering and whooping in the middle of the living room.
Anthony blinked. "Y-you kissed me..." he uttered in a tiny voice. His eyes seemed to read invisible text in front of him, darting left and right as his mind processed what had just happened. "Yeah! I won," Ian laughed and continued dancing."...but you... kissed me. You frikkin' kissed me!" Anthony repeated in disbelief. "I still won though!" Ian smirked back. "Well yeah, but so did I technically..." Anthony trailed off. When he looked up again Ian was back at the table all of a sudden eating the rest of his taco like nothing had even happened. He noticed Anthony looking at him and with a mouth full of food asked "What? Aren't you gonna find some more questions?"
Anthony was stuck in a state of shock. "You just kissed me on the mouth...and now you're just gonna go back to eating your taco like nothing even happened...?!"
"Uh, duh. Of course I am. Idiot." He bit into his taco and wiped some taco sauce off his hands onto a napkin. "I mean it's not like I used my tongue or anything. What's the big deal?"
"I..." Anthony didn't have an answer for that. He just watched in silence as Ian ate the rest of his meal happily and drank his coke. Then he paused and slowly looked up at Anthony with a serious expression. "Unless you wanted me to use my tongue...?"
Anthony was instantly knocked out of his trance. "No! Of course not!" He angrily grabbed a Pocky stick from the package and began gnawing on it, avoiding Ian presence completely. "That's gross," he mumbled.
"...and kind of awkward," Ian added.
"Yeah, it is. Wait! So kissing me on the lips isn't awkward to you?!" Anthony asked.
"No. You kissed your mom growing up, right?" Ian retorted. "Well yeah, but my mom isn't a dude the same age as me. It's different!" Anthony argued back. "Oh. Okay," Ian said in a much calmer voice. "So what you're saying is you're a sexist then?" Anthony looked up in horror at Ian’s accusation. "What?! No!" He yelled back indignantly. "So then explain to me why is kissing me on the lips awkward?" He asked. "Because I'm not gay!" Anthony heatedly replied. "Well neither am I!" Ian shot back.
Anthony couldn't think of anything else to say for a moment. "Didn't you say kissing me with tongue is awkward though?" Anthony piped up again.
" Yeah…" Ian replied back.
"So kissing me on the lips isn't?"
"No, not really."
"...so then if it’s so normal to you... why haven't you tried it before? I'm not saying you should have, I'm just wondering completely out of curiosity."
Ian sighed and threw his hands in the air. "Well... because I thought you'd freak out. And you did. I mean, I kiss Melanie on the lips all the time and she doesn’t seem to mind.”
"Well yeah. She's your girlfriend."
"No she's not. You just assumed she was."
Anthony stared at him unable to grasp what exactly he was saying. "Wait… what?"
"Melanie's not my girlfriend," he repeated. Anthony scoffed. "You're pulling my leg. What do you mean she's not? You mean all this time...?" He trailed off. Ian nodded like he should've already known this. "You said you weren't gay."
"Well I'm not straight either."
"Okay. Okay, Ian. I think this joke's gone on long enough."
"Joke? I'm bi, dude."
"No, you're straight, maybe act a little gay sometimes but you're-"
He stopped dead and thought back to the past fourteen years of knowing him, the memories flashing in his mind and tried to make sense of his words.
"You are bi...” Anthony said in astonishment. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I did! But every time I did you always thought I was joking."
"Oh," Anthony replied feeling like a complete douche. "But then... Why would kissing me with tongue be awkward if you're bi?" Anthony asked.
"Duh. 'Cause you're my best friend and you're straight. I can still be into dudes too and have a male friend I'm not interested in sexually. Wouldn't you feel a little awkward if you kissed Mari without having feelings for her and knowing she wasn't interested in you at all?"
"Oh..." Anthony replied again seeing the value of his logic. "So you're not interested in me then. What makes you think I'm straight though?"
"I dunno! You just... seem straight, alright? And I've only ever seen you interested in girls. You get really frustrated when we have to get close with each other and you start blushing like you're freaking out and don't wanna be here. You get a little mad sometimes too when I get too close to you so I figured you weren't interested in me. For a while I even thought you were kind of homophobic too..." Ian mumbled the last part a little sadly.
"...That's because...!" Anthony looked down, his face flushing red. "How do you know I'm not...frustrated because I'm self-conscious about my own interests? What if I'm just nervous for a different reason?" He mumbled. "Wait. So are you saying you're not straight either?" Ian asked. "No… well…I don't know. Let’s just look for more Twitter questions," Anthony replied looking for a way out of the conversation.
"If you're bisexual too then why be so secretive about it?" Ian blatantly asked. Anthony slunk further down into his chair and hid behind his phone. "Can we just drop it?" he muttered. "Alright. Sorry I asked, dude," Ian said wadding up his taco wrappers into paper balls. "What's the next question?" Anthony scrolled through his phone without saying anything else for at least thirty seconds then he sighed and set down his phone, meeting Ian's eyes.
"This probably isn't the best time to tell you this," he began nervously but with an air of confidence, "and I really shouldn't have dismissed you so easily in the past. I guess I just didn't want to admit it to myself in a way..."
Ian looked at him expectantly. Anthony ran a hand through his hair for the third time.
"The reason, I guess, I get nervous around you is because...well..." He fidgeted with the long thin biscuit in his hand. "…sometimes you make me feel...I dunno. Like...maybe it's okay -for me- to like another guy and have it not be weird...I mean, I never had a problem with other people that are like that, it's just weird to one day realize that it's you suddenly, that you're the one who's like that and...and it scared me." He laughed nervously. "I-I never thought I could ever feel...attracted I guess, to another guy. Let alone my best friend..." He trailed off and continued scrolling endlessly through his phone without reading the questions. "You make me feel all...fluttery on the inside..." He laughed lightly at his own description. "...but I guess that doesn't matter since you don't feel the same way..."
Anthony continued to mess with his phone, trying to distract himself from the obvious lump beginning to form in his throat. "So I guess that's it then," he ended when Ian didn't say anything after a while.
Ian returned to the chair next to him and gently placed his arm on his shoulder. "In all the time I've known you, Anthony, I've never seen you open up to me like this," he began. "I thought you just didn't want to be near me so much 'cause of weird... personal space issues or something. I didn't even see for myself..." He pulled him into a hug and he felt Anthony sigh into his shoulder like a weight had been lifted off his chest.
"I'm glad you finally got the balls to tell me all of this," he chuckled. Anthony allowed himself to enjoy Ian's embrace for once in his life and not feel threatened or ashamed. It was oddly comforting. They released each other after a few moments when Anthony was plagued with a question he needed answered. "So um... where does this leave us?" He had to ask.
Ian sighed, putting his hand on the back of his neck and looking down at the off-white carpet floor below. "All these years of trying not to think of you as a possible option for a boyfriend have left me with just… feelings of friendship for you because I assumed you were straight. I did like you a long time ago but I made myself forget about all that. I just…don't...feel the same way you do for me. You understand, right?"
Anthony felt the lump in his throat swelling again and nodded. "Yeah," he barely managed to get out through a cracking voice.
"...but," Ian suddenly continued, "I guess there's no harm in...ya know... giving it a try," he suggested. Anthony saw Ian smiling at him in that sincerely genuine way he smiles when he means something from the heart. “As long as we take it slow. I don’t wanna rush anything,” Ian added. Anthony smiled back and nodded.
“So… wanna play again?” he asked holding up the Pocky stick between his finger and thumb. “We’re both gonna win again though,” Ian grinned.
“I know.”
Anthony suddenly furrowed his brows in a disgusted look as he kept his eyes fixated on the tiny screen in his hand. "Okay-wait. No. We are not doing this, dude," he grumbled with revulsion. Ian looked up at him questioningly with the camera facing him and wondering why he didn't want to play a game that sounded innocent enough. In fact it sounded downright tasty. "Why?" He simply asked. Anthony looked up with a do you really want to know look and shook his head.
"Apparently we're supposed to get a stick of Pocky and put each end in our mouths then eat until we kiss unless one of us pulls away first. I guess the person who pulls away first loses."
"Wait, seriously?" Ian asked with a curving smile.
Anthony began laughing at how ridiculous the game was, his already coral colored cheeks now a bright shade of red as he turned away laughing and shaking his head. "What the hell is wrong with you guys?!" He yelled to the camera through his fits of laughter. Ian was looking down at the package and biting his bottom lip then turned the camera towards himself suddenly. Anthony was still overcome with disbelief at the now awkward suggestion that he didn't even catch what Ian had said. "What'd you say?" He asked, his laughter pausing momentarily.
"I said I think we should play it!"
Anthony stared at him in shock then outraged disgust which quickly morphed back to a smile when he thought Ian might be joking. "What, really? Are you fucking serious?" Ian smiled up at him waving the stick in front of their faces. "Yeah. Why not? Afraid you'll lose?"
Anthony almost chocked on his own spit after the words left Ian's mouth. "No dude! It's the gayest thing ever!" He argued back but to no avail. Ian twirled the stick between two fingers.
"Only if we both win it is," He smirked back. "What's the matter? Afraid you'll accidentally... kiss me?"
There was nothing like Ian's cocky attitude that made Anthony's blood boil more especially when a challenge was involved. He glanced down at the package of Japanese biscuits then back at Ian.
"Fiiiiiiiine, we'll play the damn Pocky game!" He sighed bitterly. Ian laughed smugly and stood up, making his way toward his companion in the grey beanie and Princess Peach shirt.
The scene was pretty similar to the setup they did for their infamous staring contest; both boys sat in opposing chairs across from each other with their legs awkwardly positioned and bodies facing directly in front of each other. Then the nervous giggling began like a young Asian schoolgirl being acknowledged by her crush, only here we had two full grown men, one of which sheltered obvious insecurities about his own sexuality.
"Well then," Ian smiled with his bubbly camera persona to his nervously blushing video partner. "It's come down to this again!" Anthony laughed some more and Ian joined in amused at how anxious Anthony was getting. "Don't make me do this again, man," Anthony nearly begged making Ian roll his eyes. "Whatever. You ready yet?"
Anthony tried to reposition himself for the hundredth time and fidgeted. "Um, no..."
"Quit stalling." Ian propped the camera up on the table and placed the chocolate end of the stick between his lips. "Why do you get the chocolate end?" Anthony whined. Ian smirked and pulled the stick out of his mouth. "Alright, you can have the chocolate end I guess," he sighed holding the stick out that now glistening with a fresh coat of saliva towards Anthony's mouth making him blush and shove the stick away. "Gross! No!" He laughed as he swatted the biscuit away, breaking it and sending it to the floor. "Hey! I was gonna eat that!" Ian whimpered. "Well, ya still can!" Anthony snickered looking down at the bits on the ground. Ian shook his head and pulled out another stick. "Okay. Round 2 and this time don't break the frickin' stick!"
"Well then give me the chocolate side this time!" Anthony ordered. Ian turned the stick around and placed the un-coated side between his teeth. Anthony hesitantly placed his mouth on the other end. He realized his lips were only about four inches away from Ian's and he became flustered again. Ian appeared perfectly calm which definitely seemed to tick him off even more but he took a deep breath through his nostrils and nodded when Ian asked if he was ready.
All he could see was Ian's pale cerulean eyes gleaming back. Anthony swallowed and nodded. "Okay and...go!" The two began munching away and within mere seconds Anthony felt Ian's nose brush against his and he pulled back hard. "Gah!" He yelped as he nearly fell out of his chair but succeeding in getting a rise out of Ian. "Dude, chill out!" Ian laughed while still chewing the remnants of the chocolate biscuit. Anthony muttered something profane just out of earshot and scooted back into the chair. "Okay, you win. Can we please get back to the Twitter Questions?"
"Come on, you weren't even trying!" Ian complained. "Just one more time!" Ian pulled out another stick and lightly tapped him on the nose with it then on each side of his face. "S-stop," Anthony muttered as a slight rosy blush crept onto his cheeks. Ian grinned as he ignored his protests and tapped his chin then his lips with the stick. Anthony furiously chomped on the stick startling Ian into pulling his hand away and yelping. He snickered at Ian's sudden knee-jerk reaction and took out another one. "Come on Ian, don't dilly dally," Anthony said in a sing song voice mocking his enthusiasm from earlier. Ian huffed at Anthony's words, his lips curving into a crooked smile. "Douche," he grumbled getting close to the other end of the stick. They lined the stick up like before and were once again at eye level. An unannounced tension hung heavy in the air as the two boys remained eye to eye. "Alright. Ready...go," Ian began then started frantically munching away faster than before. Anthony didn't even have a chance to react this time because Ian was suddenly already through with the Pocky stick and in that moment all the breath seemed to leave his lungs as he felt for just a brief second a warm pair of lips crash against his own. Everything happened so fast like a gust of wind quickly bursting past him in one fell swoop and his wide mahogany stricken eyes watched as Ian shot a fist into the air cheering and whooping in the middle of the living room.
Anthony blinked. "Y-you kissed me..." he uttered in a tiny voice. His eyes seemed to read invisible text in front of him, darting left and right as his mind processed what had just happened. "Yeah! I won," Ian laughed and continued dancing."...but you... kissed me. You frikkin' kissed me!" Anthony repeated in disbelief. "I still won though!" Ian smirked back. "Well yeah, but so did I technically..." Anthony trailed off. When he looked up again Ian was back at the table all of a sudden eating the rest of his taco like nothing had even happened. He noticed Anthony looking at him and with a mouth full of food asked "What? Aren't you gonna find some more questions?"
Anthony was stuck in a state of shock. "You just kissed me on the mouth...and now you're just gonna go back to eating your taco like nothing even happened...?!"
"Uh, duh. Of course I am. Idiot." He bit into his taco and wiped some taco sauce off his hands onto a napkin. "I mean it's not like I used my tongue or anything. What's the big deal?"
"I..." Anthony didn't have an answer for that. He just watched in silence as Ian ate the rest of his meal happily and drank his coke. Then he paused and slowly looked up at Anthony with a serious expression. "Unless you wanted me to use my tongue...?"
Anthony was instantly knocked out of his trance. "No! Of course not!" He angrily grabbed a Pocky stick from the package and began gnawing on it, avoiding Ian presence completely. "That's gross," he mumbled.
"...and kind of awkward," Ian added.
"Yeah, it is. Wait! So kissing me on the lips isn't awkward to you?!" Anthony asked.
"No. You kissed your mom growing up, right?" Ian retorted. "Well yeah, but my mom isn't a dude the same age as me. It's different!" Anthony argued back. "Oh. Okay," Ian said in a much calmer voice. "So what you're saying is you're a sexist then?" Anthony looked up in horror at Ian’s accusation. "What?! No!" He yelled back indignantly. "So then explain to me why is kissing me on the lips awkward?" He asked. "Because I'm not gay!" Anthony heatedly replied. "Well neither am I!" Ian shot back.
Anthony couldn't think of anything else to say for a moment. "Didn't you say kissing me with tongue is awkward though?" Anthony piped up again.
" Yeah…" Ian replied back.
"So kissing me on the lips isn't?"
"No, not really."
"...so then if it’s so normal to you... why haven't you tried it before? I'm not saying you should have, I'm just wondering completely out of curiosity."
Ian sighed and threw his hands in the air. "Well... because I thought you'd freak out. And you did. I mean, I kiss Melanie on the lips all the time and she doesn’t seem to mind.”
"Well yeah. She's your girlfriend."
"No she's not. You just assumed she was."
Anthony stared at him unable to grasp what exactly he was saying. "Wait… what?"
"Melanie's not my girlfriend," he repeated. Anthony scoffed. "You're pulling my leg. What do you mean she's not? You mean all this time...?" He trailed off. Ian nodded like he should've already known this. "You said you weren't gay."
"Well I'm not straight either."
"Okay. Okay, Ian. I think this joke's gone on long enough."
"Joke? I'm bi, dude."
"No, you're straight, maybe act a little gay sometimes but you're-"
He stopped dead and thought back to the past fourteen years of knowing him, the memories flashing in his mind and tried to make sense of his words.
"You are bi...” Anthony said in astonishment. "Why didn't you tell me?!"
"I did! But every time I did you always thought I was joking."
"Oh," Anthony replied feeling like a complete douche. "But then... Why would kissing me with tongue be awkward if you're bi?" Anthony asked.
"Duh. 'Cause you're my best friend and you're straight. I can still be into dudes too and have a male friend I'm not interested in sexually. Wouldn't you feel a little awkward if you kissed Mari without having feelings for her and knowing she wasn't interested in you at all?"
"Oh..." Anthony replied again seeing the value of his logic. "So you're not interested in me then. What makes you think I'm straight though?"
"I dunno! You just... seem straight, alright? And I've only ever seen you interested in girls. You get really frustrated when we have to get close with each other and you start blushing like you're freaking out and don't wanna be here. You get a little mad sometimes too when I get too close to you so I figured you weren't interested in me. For a while I even thought you were kind of homophobic too..." Ian mumbled the last part a little sadly.
"...That's because...!" Anthony looked down, his face flushing red. "How do you know I'm not...frustrated because I'm self-conscious about my own interests? What if I'm just nervous for a different reason?" He mumbled. "Wait. So are you saying you're not straight either?" Ian asked. "No… well…I don't know. Let’s just look for more Twitter questions," Anthony replied looking for a way out of the conversation.
"If you're bisexual too then why be so secretive about it?" Ian blatantly asked. Anthony slunk further down into his chair and hid behind his phone. "Can we just drop it?" he muttered. "Alright. Sorry I asked, dude," Ian said wadding up his taco wrappers into paper balls. "What's the next question?" Anthony scrolled through his phone without saying anything else for at least thirty seconds then he sighed and set down his phone, meeting Ian's eyes.
"This probably isn't the best time to tell you this," he began nervously but with an air of confidence, "and I really shouldn't have dismissed you so easily in the past. I guess I just didn't want to admit it to myself in a way..."
Ian looked at him expectantly. Anthony ran a hand through his hair for the third time.
"The reason, I guess, I get nervous around you is because...well..." He fidgeted with the long thin biscuit in his hand. "…sometimes you make me feel...I dunno. Like...maybe it's okay -for me- to like another guy and have it not be weird...I mean, I never had a problem with other people that are like that, it's just weird to one day realize that it's you suddenly, that you're the one who's like that and...and it scared me." He laughed nervously. "I-I never thought I could ever feel...attracted I guess, to another guy. Let alone my best friend..." He trailed off and continued scrolling endlessly through his phone without reading the questions. "You make me feel all...fluttery on the inside..." He laughed lightly at his own description. "...but I guess that doesn't matter since you don't feel the same way..."
Anthony continued to mess with his phone, trying to distract himself from the obvious lump beginning to form in his throat. "So I guess that's it then," he ended when Ian didn't say anything after a while.
Ian returned to the chair next to him and gently placed his arm on his shoulder. "In all the time I've known you, Anthony, I've never seen you open up to me like this," he began. "I thought you just didn't want to be near me so much 'cause of weird... personal space issues or something. I didn't even see for myself..." He pulled him into a hug and he felt Anthony sigh into his shoulder like a weight had been lifted off his chest.
"I'm glad you finally got the balls to tell me all of this," he chuckled. Anthony allowed himself to enjoy Ian's embrace for once in his life and not feel threatened or ashamed. It was oddly comforting. They released each other after a few moments when Anthony was plagued with a question he needed answered. "So um... where does this leave us?" He had to ask.
Ian sighed, putting his hand on the back of his neck and looking down at the off-white carpet floor below. "All these years of trying not to think of you as a possible option for a boyfriend have left me with just… feelings of friendship for you because I assumed you were straight. I did like you a long time ago but I made myself forget about all that. I just…don't...feel the same way you do for me. You understand, right?"
Anthony felt the lump in his throat swelling again and nodded. "Yeah," he barely managed to get out through a cracking voice.
"...but," Ian suddenly continued, "I guess there's no harm in...ya know... giving it a try," he suggested. Anthony saw Ian smiling at him in that sincerely genuine way he smiles when he means something from the heart. “As long as we take it slow. I don’t wanna rush anything,” Ian added. Anthony smiled back and nodded.
“So… wanna play again?” he asked holding up the Pocky stick between his finger and thumb. “We’re both gonna win again though,” Ian grinned.
“I know.”