It felt surreal to Sam that he had told someone other than Jordy, Jenna and Aleksei about his sexuality. Of course, he had carefully decided who he told the truth. Daniel was one of Jenna's friends. He was gay, he had a boyfriend--one that Sam didn't really get along with--and he was a loyal friend. Even if they had their discussions every now and again.

Daniel had reacted surprised, and that had told Sam he really did a good job at hiding his sexuality from the world. If someone like Daniel didn't even notice anything, nobody probably would figure it out. But at least Daniel understood, and they had a decent conversation about Sam hiding in the closet. Daniel knew Sam's parents well enough to understand why he wouldn't tell them.

And since Daniel knew about Aleksei, and had sworn to keep things a secret, Sam had figured he was the perfect friend to introduce to Aleksei. It was a small start to introduce him to one friend, but it was a start nonetheless.

Still, Sam was nervous. He wanted his friends to like Aleksei, and he wanted Aleksei to like his friends too. It meant a lot to him.

As soon as the doorbell rang, he hurried into the hallway to let Aleksei inside. He couldn't help but check him out from head to toe, before smiling warmly.

"Hey handsome," he greeted Aleksei.

Aleksei really wanted Sam's friends to like him, too. He'd paid mind to his clothing and hair as if he was going on a date. He had even slipped a mint into his mouth before ringing the doorbell, but it still wasn't enough preparation to calm his nerves.

"Hey," he greeted Sam when the latter opened the door. He tried to smile. "I'm ready to meet your friend."

Of course, stating it awkwardly like that only emphasised how nervous he was about it.

"Are you nervous?" Sam asked, noticing the smile wasn't really genuine. "Don't worry, I'm sure you two will get along," he offered, trying to make it less of a big deal. It shouldn't even be a big deal. Even if Daniel and Aleksei wouldn't get along, he still wanted to date Aleksei. It wouldn't change anything.

"No," Aleksei tried to deny it at first, before deciding it was pointless to lie. Sam saw right through him already. "Okay, yeah." He sighed. "But I'm sure Daniel is great."

"Honestly, don't tell him this, but I never met a guy who's as kind as he is," Sam admitted with a chuckle. "Let's just get it over with, so you'll see that there's no reason to be nervous."

Sam took Aleksei to the kitchen, where Jenna was making smoothies while Daniel hung around. As usual they were gossiping about their boyfriends.

"Hey guys," Sam interrupted them, waving a hand towards Aleksei. "Daniel, this is Aleksei," he quickly introduced him, before turning to Aleksei. "This is Daniel. I need to warn, Jenna and Danny share every detail about their relationship with each other. So they're a bit uncensored." Sam meant it as a joke, trying to lighten the mood for Aleksei. But it was true. The two knew no shame when it came to sharing details.

"Hi Daniel," Aleksei said, shaking Daniel's hand. "And... okay."

Aleksei already felt red creep onto his cheeks. He didn't know what else to say to that. He didn't mind if people wanted to share details about their relationship, as long as they didn't expect the same out of him.

"Don't worry," Daniel told them with a smirk on his face. "We'll keep it PG-13 for little Sammie."

"Oh, shut up," Sam replied while rolling his eyes. "I'm still the older out of the two of us."

Jenna chuckled, but nodded in agreement. "Older, but inexperienced."

Sam felt a blush forming on his cheeks. He wasn't that inexperienced anymore. Not that he was going to tell her that.

He figured things were highly uncomfortable for Aleksei with their teasing, and he silently cursed them for it, turning to face Aleksei again. "Do you want to stay here and listen to their bullshit, or go and walk Rex?"

"Oh, I don't mind," Aleksei replied. He wasn't about to say, to Daniel and Jenna's face, that he'd rather walk Rex than talk to them. Which wasn't true regardless, but he always enjoyed being alone with Sam.

"Let's walk Rex." Sam filled in the answer himself. He felt confident that Aleksei rather walked the dog than stay around and feel embarrassed because Jenna and Daniel didn't know what boundaries were.

"Don't let us scare you away," Daniel replied, smiling at them. "We can talk about other things, if you want."

"I rather make sure Rex won't feel ignored." Sam smirked. "We can talk the next time we meet."

"It was nice meeting you regardless," Aleksei offered politely.

"Nice to meet you too, hope we'll get to know each other better soon." Daniel again flashed a smile.

Sam smiled back, before he grabbed Aleksei's hand, and pulled him to the door and into the backyard. "Sorry, I needed to walk Rex anyway, and I figure you want to walk for Pokemon Go to hatch that egg," he made up some excuses.

He wondered why he wasn't just telling him the truth instead. "And I really just want to be alone with you," he eventually admitted with a smile. "You'll get to know Daniel in time anyway. He spends a lot of time here."

"He seems nice," Aleksei said, giving Sam's hand a squeeze. "But he's not expecting me to talk about... stuff?"

Sam shook his head with a smile. "Oh, no," he chuckled at the thought of them talking to Daniel and Jenna about the things they did. "No, he kind of always talks about that when I'm around because I don't get along with his boyfriend. And that only got worse now that he knows I'm gay." Sam put Rex on a leash with one hand, not willing to let go of Aleksei's hand.

"He doesn't know you're not so inexperienced, though," Aleksei teased lightly, feeling more secure now Sam eased his mind about Daniel and it was just the two them together.

Sam couldn't help but laugh out a little, shaking his head in the same time. "No," he answered, "and let's keep it that way."

"They're going to assume if we are together all the time and--"

Aleksei wanted to say more, but abruptly stopped his sentence. That was if they'd keep hanging out. Aleksei wanted to, and he had a feeling Sam did too. But they hadn't actually talked about it.

Sam nodded, understanding where he was going. "Yeah..." he replied lamely. "I kind of wanted to talk about that with you" he admitted, trying to stay calm. He really wanted to know how Aleksei thought about them, but he didn't really know how to ask.

Aleksei had previously agreed on a date, and they had been intimate together. Sam was probably nervous for no reason. Still, he couldn't help himself.

"How eh... how do you see... us?" he asked while he felt a blush forming on his cheeks again.

"See us?" Aleksei repeated, frowning.

Sam's cheeks were burning, while he was trying to come up with the right way to ask. How hard could it be? Aleksei, are we dating? Are we just friends? Are we together? All decent questions. Still, Sam couldn't get the question out with normal words. No, of course his brain left him hanging here, and his nerves made it worse.

"Well... you know... us. Like, are we... together? Dating? How do you see us?"

Wow, Sam, great job.

Aleksei kept his expression neutral. But on the inside? Yeah, full panic. He couldn't believe Sam was going to make him talk first. He was going to die of embarrassment if he said he wanted to date and then Sam replied he just wanted to have sex.

He coughed. "What do you think?" he deflected the question with his heart thumping in his throat.

Sam cleared his throat, scratched his head and focused on watching Rex running around in front of them. Eye contact was too much. "I don't know," he carefully spoke up, "maybe... we're dating? I mean, if you want to... Because if you don't... well..."

"I do!" Aleksei didn't know how fast to spit the words out. The volume of his voice had risen too, and he cleared his throat too while regaining his composure. Mostly. Sam wanting to date him made Aleksei kind of want to skip around the park, smile at random strangers, kiss Rex's head, and most of all, kiss Sam.

"Why wouldn't I want to?" Aleksei asked with a smile. "Where else will I find a guy who is as good looking and talented in so many ways, and has the cu- toughest dog in the world."

"You make it sound as if I'm a great catch..." Sam drawled, feeling a bit awkward. He really needed to get used to compliments. "But yeah, if you want it too, I guess we're dating," Sam replied with a huge smile on his face.

"Wicked," Aleksei replied, also smiling. But the word felt strange to say, and suddenly Aleksei hesitated whether his classmate was telling the truth about it being another word for 'awesome.' "If that's the right word to use?" he added, hesitantly. "Some guy at school said it meant the same as awesome."

Sam chuckled, but nodded to answer his question. "Yeah, it means the same," he answered, taking a look around them to see if there was anyone watching them.

"God, you're so cute right now," he added while breathing out. "I really want to kiss you right now."

And that's what he did. He pulled Aleksei into the bushes to prevent people from seeing them, put his arms around Aleksei, and kissed him on his lips.

He shorly pulled back to look at Aleksei with a smirk on his face. "All this time here in the park, and you haven't even caught a Pokemon."

"No," Aleksei replied breathlessly. Flustered and dazed in the best kind of way from suddenly being pulled in the bushes and kissed. "I found a much better catch."

Sam smiled, it was crazy how happy he felt with Aleksei in his arms. And to show the other boy his feelings, he kissed him again.