:January 3rd, XX47; Friday.

:ENCOURAGEMENT TO COMPLETE QUEST.

:guess who's back, bitches:)

•~~~~•

"You know, never thought I'd say this, but it's good to be back."

Remy smirked up at you as he walked along the sidewalk leading to Joe's school, Emile sighing right next to him. (you did miss me, right? oh, i don't even need to ask. of course you did.)

"I'm glad you've stepped back in too," Emile said, looking at his husband. "It's better for everyone."

"Yeah. You're all probably confused as to what happened, exactly, though, so I'll give a quick summary-" he cleared his throat. "So. After Joseph found my seventh-grader jacket in my old shack I ended up helping him get it back to my current place since it wasn't gonna do him any use in his closet. So pretty much I stopped not talking to him."

"And you stopped whispering stuff into Logan's ear, didn't you?"

Remy sighed. "I did, I did... about a week ago. It went on for a while. But it was just a bad habit, y'know? It was for the best I stopped though. I've left the guy constantly on edge for when I'm gonna be back, and now that I'll never do it again he'll just be left to suffer." He chuckled to himself, and Emile sighed next to him.

"At least you're not doing it still. And you're not gonna ghost Joe again, right?"

"Right. I can promise that. Also just a bad habit." He hummed. "And what are we all on now... Encouragement to Complete Quest? I don't know who's gonna need encouragement to do anything right now but I'll tell y'all this, and it's that I've got some shit planned for the next section."

"What you have planned, Remy?"

He rolled his eyes. "I just like to pretend I have more control over my afterlife than I do, Emmy, dear. We're all in the dark, here. I'm just hoping someone I hate suffers."

"Alright, hon."

"But anyway- not much else has happened. The kid got his tattoo last month but that's about it. He should be in his last class right now, it's almost time for him to get out of school. Today's his first day back after winter break, and tonight he's got his first date with his boyfriend. That's all I know. We're gonna hang around a bit for it."

The two saw the school up ahead and sped up their walking a tad, just wanting to make sure they got there before the final bell rang. Once arrived, they found his history class quick enough, walking in just as the bell did ring. Joe stood up from his seat with a sigh, nodding to his uncles before joining his friends and going back out to the hallway.

"So-" Remy greeted as he got to Joe's locker, "you ready for your date tonight?"

"Trying not to think about it," Joe laughed nervously underneath his breath, whispering so no one else around him could hear him speaking.

"What's going on in it, then?" Emile asked.

"Uhm... well, we're gonna have dinner with my parents once we get to my house and then we're probably gonna sit on my roof, and then my dad was amazing and somehow convinced his mom to let him stay for a sleepover."

"Shit, kid. That's plot convenience if I've ever seen it... and I have. Just remember neither of you are at the consenting age of the state quite yet."

Joe's face lit on fire and he looked down to the ground, shaking his head a bit out of embarrassment. Remy laughed, and Emile sighed.

"Don't worry about him, Joe," Emile said, "it'll all go fine."

"...I know, I know. I'm just nervous."

"And that's perfectly normal."

"Joe, you coming?"

Joe looked up to see Sage and Oliver staring at him from Oliver's locker, and Joe quickly shut his, nodding, and starting towards them. With a sigh and a smirk, his uncles followed behind.

•~~~•

"Hey, kiddos! Dinner will be ready in just a moment, you can go ahead and sit down."

"Thank you, Mr. Patton!"

"Thanks, dad."

"Thanks, bitch."

Emile shook his head a bit at Remy's remark, but Remy just smirked, following the two teenagers into the house and to the dining room table. Remy leaned against a nearby wall and Emile stood next to him, Joe and Oliver both sitting down at the table, on the same side of it. Soon, Joe's parents sat down together on the other side, Patton handing out plates of spaghetti to everyone and himself.

"Say... Logan looks like he's half-zoned out," Remy commented, walking a bit forward to catch a glimpse of his face. "I've done my work good."

"Remy..."

"How's school for you two, then?" Patton suddenly asked.

"It's been okay, everything's a bit more chill now that midterms are over," Joe said.

"Yeah. But we've only been back one day. I just think it's stupid we had to come back today since the weekend is tomorrow. Couldn't they have just given us off today, too?"

"I guess that's how school works sometimes," Patton smiled. "When are finals?"

"Wait, aren't you a teacher?" Oliver asked. "Wouldn't your school have finals around the same time we do?"

"Yes, but they probably won't be in the same exact week or on the same days."

"We don't know exactly when our finals are yet, dad," Joe chuckled.

"Ah, darn... but you do know when prom is."

"Oh no..." Patton laughed a bit at his son's reaction.

"You guys already got your admissions tickets, though, right?"

"Yeah, we did," Oliver nodded.

"Good, good. Maybe you can get Sage to go suit shopping with you or something. I'm sure he'll need one."

(hey. logan hasn't said shit this whole time. just thought that was funny. might as well mention.)

"I don't know if my mom will let me wear a suit... I mean, she won't, I know that."

"But you've gone before, to prom, haven't you?" Patton raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah. I don't really mind wearing dresses all that much, honestly. But I get uncomfortable there because all the girls are wearing them. And then I can't use the men's bathroom, and teachers who don't recognize me will call me young lady. Usually I sneak a hoodie and jeans or something past my mom and just wear that over it. Helps a little bit."

"I've been telling you since freshman year to just change in the bathroom," Joe said. Oliver chuckled.

"I don't think I can sneak in an entire suit. A hoodie is fine."

"Okay, how's this- you have another sleepover here the night before and then you can just go in the suit, come back here after, change, and get your mom to pick you up. Genius."

"If I can convince her to let you stay the night again that just might work," Patton nodded along.

Oliver smiled. "I really hope you can."

"...That does sound quite nice," Logan finally said, quietly. Patton smiled at him and rubbed his back, Remy raising his eyebrows.

"Mm, so he can talk."

•~~~~•

"Oli... I got lost again."

Remy glanced up from where he was sitting, chuckled, and looked back down to his phone. It was a good few hours later- Joe and Oliver were sitting on the former's floor, playing Minecraft on their phones together. Remy and Emile were sitting nearby, also on their phones but doing other things, both getting a bit bored now that a while had passed.

Oliver sighed at his boyfriend. "Just teleport to me, don't bother walking all the way back home. You're like, what, five thousand blocks away from me?"

"That's cheating."

"Just do it."

"No, give me your coordinates."

Oliver smiled and rolled his eyes. He clicked a few times on his phone and Joe suddenly gasped.

"Wh- hey, you can't just teleport me back to you yourself! That's mean!"

"I did you a favor."

"I was gonna get back home event- ...wait, how the hell do you have netherite armor?"

"I went to the nether and did productive things while you were out on your five thousand block journey just to get name tags and saddles and dye."

"Well I'm sorry I have a bad memory and can't remember the names of my eight dogs, four cats, seven foxes, three birds, and two horses, plus all the bees, not to mention the animals in our farms! You better have saved some of that stuff for me."

"I'm working on getting tools now, and bookshelves for our new enchantment table. You're on your own," Oliver smirked a bit. Joe pushed his shoulder, and the former laughed. "Also, the sun's setting, you should set your spawn back here."

"That's true, I guess. The sunset is really pretty."

"It is."

Joe smiled a bit down at his phone, and then his eyes went wide. "Wait- oh shit, we were gonna watch the sunset on my roof!"

Oliver blinked and they both looked out his window- it was dark already.

"Darn... we missed it. It's probably too cold to go out there now, anyway."

"I don't think it is," Joe suddenly stood up, turning off his phone and walking over to his closet. Oliver stood up too, also turning off his device.

"What are you doing?"

"I'll give you one of my hoodies. Then we can go sit out there."

Oliver blushed a bit, but then he smiled, and nodded. Remy stood up too, Emile following after him, both deciding they should join them out on the roof. Soon enough, Oliver was wearing the hoodie, and the two carefully climbed out Joe's window onto the rooftop below it. Remy and Emile climbed out after them, sitting some ways away from them. Joe closed the window and the two got situated next to each other. Oliver looked up into the sky.

"Huh... wow," he mumbled.

"What?" Joe looked up to the sky himself.

"This area isn't that light-polluted... you can see a lot of the stars."

Joe smiled. "You like stars?"

"I guess. They're pretty."

"If you wanna go to the college my parents teach at, you should take my father's class, then. He teaches astrology. I'm not overly interested in it myself but I'll probably take it since it counts for an elective, I think. And it's my father. Might as well."

"Yeah... that sounds fun. Maybe we'll get in it together."

"That would be cool."

The two smiled a each other. Oliver looked down to the roof, and then his eyes traveled to the edge of it. He frowned and sat up a bit.

"You've sat up here before, right? We won't fall?" He asked. Joe frowned and intertwined their fingers.

"We'll be fine. The roof isn't that slanted, and even if you did fall it's only one story, so..."

Oliver laughed a bit. "I don't think falling one story would be that good regardless."

"That's true. But you'll be fine, I swear."

Oliver nodded. A silence came between them then, where both shuffled slowly towards each other, until their shoulders were touching and it was obvious they wanted to perhaps cuddle but neither wished to make the move to do so. Remy chuckled underneath his breath.

"Nostalgic?" Emile asked him, voice sweet, taking his hand. Remy raised an eyebrow at him.

"Why would I- ...oh, shit, we had our first date sitting on my roof, didn't we? Now I remember."

"Yeah," Emile smiled. "That was a long time ago... but I remember we were too awkward to make a move on each other for a good bit too."

"...Are you cold at all? Or are you good?" Joe asked. Oliver shook his head.

"No, I'm fine... just having your hoodie is good."

Joe smiled. "Yeah, uh, you look good in it."

A smile slowly came upon Oliver's face, and he looked away from Joe, the latter doing the same thing, both laughing a bit from embarrassment.

"Thank you," Oliver mumbled after a moment.

"Hah- yeah... you're good, then? Nothing you need? You're comfortable?"

"I'm good, yep."

"Great, yeah."

"Joe, literally just use him not wanting to fall off the roof as an excuse to cuddle with him," Remy called over. Joe blushed a bit, raising his eyebrows. He glanced at his boyfriend.

"If you're still scared of falling, y'know I could just, like- uh... shit, words are hard," he chuckled to himself. Oliver smiled a bit at him.

"You could just... what?"

"Like- I mean, we could... y'know..."

"...Cuddle?"

"Y-Yeah, that."

"Oh. Yeah, sure."

"Great- awesome, okay."

The two laughed a bit again, and stayed still, not sure exactly how they were going to go about doing that. After a moment they both wrapped their arms around each other's back, and Oliver laid his head on Joe's shoulder. They sighed a bit, comfortably, and then they stayed in silence, staring up into the stars above together. Remy smirked at them.

"A cute couple, you two are," he said. "Glad you can follow in my footsteps in some way, Joe, since this was the format of our first date. With myself and Emile, I mean."

Emile hummed, laying his head down on Remy's shoulder. "That was the first time we kissed, too." Remy smiled at him, and then he raised his eyebrows, looking back over to his nibbling.

"We sure did- you hear that, Joe?" Remy amplified his voice. "Emile and I had our first kiss like this, too! Maybe you should follow in your uncles' footsteps on that one, huh?"

Joe scrunched up his face and looked down to the roof, cheeks obviously becoming redder than they already were. Remy laughed, and Emile giggled a bit himself.

"Just accept it, kid... you're gonna kiss him eventually. I know you want to."

Joe let out a sigh, and he looked back into the sky, clearly trying to ignore what Remy was saying. Remy smirked a bit to himself.

"Well... I suppose we should leave you alone to do that, then. I'm sure you'd rather do it when you're actually alone up here."

Remy began to stand up, and Emile stood up with him, neither worried about falling off the roof since it wouldn't hurt them at all. In fact, they did jump off of it, landing on their feet in the grass below. Remy brushed off his jacket a bit with a huff.

"Great. Passing the POV over to you, Joe, take care of the readers for me. They're all counting on your courage for this next scene. Don't screw it up."

Joe furrowed his eyebrows as his uncle waved at him, beginning to walk away from the scene, his hand soon finding his husband's. He had no idea what any of that just meant... but it didn't really matter, because yeah, now he was alone. With his boyfriend.

And he did really wanted to kiss him.

Yet he didn't really want to move, either- Oliver had his head on his shoulder, still, and he really didn't want to disturb him or accidentally make him uncomfortable. But he knew he really wanted to at least see if Oliver was interested in kissing him, so he moved his arm a bit closer around him, hand resting holding his side. He glanced down nervously to Oliver's face, but saw he was smiling, and soon enough the latter wrapped a second arm around Joe with a small laugh.

"Hi," Joe mumbled, beginning to smile himself. Oliver looked up at him.

"Hi," he smiled wider.

"So... how are you?"

"I'm feeling pretty good, how are you?"

"Also pretty good."

"Yeah... good."

"Yeah."

They stared at each other, Joe doing his best to hide the fact he was panicking a good bit. Okay, and now he just had to figure out what to say next. Wanna kiss? No, that was too forward. But if it wasn't forward enough then he'd just stumble over his words and that would be awkward. There just didn't seem to be a perfect middle he could do, though... why was this all so complicated?

Joe then realized he had a hand that was just sitting at his side, and it wasn't doing anything. He blinked a few times, and then took a deep breath, before slowly bringing it up to Oliver's face. He cupped his cheek, and Oliver's eyes widened a bit before he began to sit up fully. They both glanced down at the other's lips at the same time, and then back up to each other's eyes. They held back an awkward laugh and began to smile instead, trying oh so hard not to break eye contact.

"...I feel like this is already more awkward than it needs to be," Oliver mumbled, and Joe let out the laugh he had tried to hide, Oliver then doing the same.

"Yeah, but, like, neither of us have ever done this before, so it's kinda... y'know. Probably gonna be like that."

"That's true."

Joe sighed. "Okay, so... how- how does this work, exactly?"

Oliver smiled awkwardly. "I really don't know. It can't be that hard, right? You kinda... lean forward, and then you just do it."

"So who's gonna do it?"

Oliver paused. "I mean, you're the one who asked me out, so..."

Joe chuckled. "Damn it, you're right. I guess you can just close your eyes, and I'll... yeah."

"Okay."

Oliver stared at him for another moment, before moving his hands to sit at Joe's shoulders. He took a deep breath, and then his eyes were closed. But Joe's only widened.

Yeah, he had no idea how to do this.

Oh, god, what if he did it really badly, though? This wasn't just his first kiss, it was Oliver's, too. He couldn't screw it up- he just couldn't.

Joe took a shakey breath. He wasn't even sure if he could do it- but, no, he had to. He really wanted to, and because of that he was going to.

He stared for a few more moments, and then he gulped. But, suddenly, Oliver opened his eyes, probably because Joe had been sitting there completely frozen for perhaps thirty seconds. Oliver then got a concerned look, furrowing his eyebrows.

"Joe, are you okay?"

"Y-Yeah, I'm fine," Joe nodded quickly. "Just... I'm really scared I'm gonna do this wrong," he laughed a bit, nervously. Oliver sighed.

"Well... it's both of our first kisses, right? It's probably not going to be perfect, but that's okay," He smiled a bit. "I promise you'll have other opportunities to, y'know... do it again, if this one isn't the best it can be."

Joe sighed as well. "I know, I know, yeah. I just have a lot of nerves about it, still. It feels like a really big deal, doesn't it?"

Oliver stared at him for a moment, before taking a slow, deep breath, and moving one of his hands to cup Joe's cheek.

"I'll do it."

Joe blinked. "Really? I- you're sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure." He smiled. "Close your eyes. Don't worry about it, Joey."

Joe slowly removed his hand from Oliver's face, placing it at his side, and he closed his eyes, taking a slow breath through his nose as he felt Oliver lean closer to him. His heartbeat sped up fast enough that he could feel it in his chest, but he kept his composure calm, still focusing on his breathing more than anything. Their noses brushed together, causing Oliver to let out a breathy laugh and Joe to follow suit, relieving both of their nerves for perhaps a second, but after only another moment, Oliver tilted his head, and then it happened.

Joe struggled to keep his eyes closed- immediately, all he felt was the need to be closer to his boyfriend. He wrapped his arms fully around Oliver's torso, and he kissed him back, a shiver going down his spine, and oh, it felt like he was floating. It was over only a few seconds after, but even then when their glasses clinked together as they pulled apart, Joe had practically forgotten how to breathe. And then he felt awkward, like maybe it was too forceful, and both knew the kiss wasn't perfect...

Except, it was. It was perfect. Because it had just happened.

Joe finally willed himself to open his eyes, which immediately found Oliver's. They sat there awkwardly for perhaps fifteen seconds, only staring, only breathing, until suddenly they burst out in laughter. They giggled and snorted together, wobbling back and forth in each other's arms, underneath the stars, for what seemed to last a lifetime, until they had to force themselves to stop just to catch their breath when their lungs began to ache. And then they just hugged, soon laying down, somehow finding comfort together on the cold, rough roof they laid on.

And they laid like that, cuddling, until Oliver fell asleep and Joe had to wake him up so they could both go back inside to instead sleep in a warm bed and lay a bit more comfortably. But the cuddling all remained the same.

•~~~~•
:)

see ya in the next chapter!😰
~Maxx(SanderShipper)