•After
•March 30th, XX48
•Joe's POV
•Contains: cursing, food
•yes, i know there's no six flags in Florida realistically. we're using our imagination here. in summary, joe and sage go on their first date and the former is terrified of heights. a classic.

•~~~~•

"And you guys have your wallets, phones, everything?"

Joe let out a brief sigh, and looked out the window of the car he was sitting in the backseat of. At that moment, he was being driven to Six Flags along with Sage by the latter's parents. It wasn't very surprising that Sage's dad had asked them multiple times to double check they had everything they needed for the date.

Yes- it was a date. That fact still boggled Joe's mind a bit. Barely more than a week ago, he'd found himself kissing his best friend in the bathroom of their senior year prom, and he found that he actually enjoyed it, so now that their spring break had begun the two had finally scheduled a time to get together.

"Yes, dad, we promise we do," Sage answered his dad.

"Virgil, I love you, but you worry way too much," Sage's pop said to his husband as the car began to pull into the parking lot of Six Flags. Virgil sighed himself, and Joe and Sage glanced over at each other.

"And you told me when we adopted a kid that someday we'd have to let him go do shit on his own but I'm still gonna be anxious about it."

"Alright, V."

Joe watched still through the car window as they pulled up to the front of the park. With a breath, hoping to grant himself a bit more confidence, Joe began to unbuckle his seatbelt. Sage's pop turned to look back at them.

"Okay, you two, have fun! One of you just text me when you're ready to be picked up."

"Thank you!" Joe flashed a smile at him.

Sage's dad looked back as well. "Don't get lost, and don't make out at the top of a Ferris Wheel, it's cliché and boring."

"Dad-"

The two teens- if eighteen still counted you as a "teenager"- got out of the car after that, and they began to walk up to the front to be let in as their ride drove away. Joe snuck a glance over at his date a few times as they walked, and he wanted to say something, but he wasn't sure what.

"The, uh, the lines aren't too long in the front here, so that's pretty good," he eventually decided on saying.

"Yeah. I don't think the rest of the schools in the area are on spring break yet, and today's a Monday, so that works out pretty well. Plus people are probably more likely to go to Disney."

The lines definitely were definitely short- the two got through security relatively easily, and Joe marveled at the sights around him as he fully stepped into the park, being able to immediately spot the tips of rollercoasters and other rides that had previously been hidden away from him. He glanced over at Sage then, who smiled at him.

"What do you wanna do first?" Joe asked.

"We should go find and ride the tallest rollercoaster in the park."

Joe bit his lip. That didn't seem like the best idea. Of course, Joe wasn't scared of heights or anything, definitely not. Nope. He just didn't like tall rollercoasters.

"Eh... maybe we should save that for later."

Sage chuckled. "What, are you scared?"

"Uh-" Joe laughed back, a bit nervously. "no?"

"Sure, sure. Well, we can figure something else ou- ooh, look, they have one of those wild mouse-type coasters!"

With that remark, Sage grabbed Joe's hand and began pulling him over to the attraction. Joe followed along with him, and he felt like he was worrying a lot more about the date part of all of this than Sage probably was. His heart was already beating pretty fast, he'd been looking forward to this trip since they planned it and now it had finally arrived.

They got in line, another relatively small one, and Joe found himself hardly able to stand still.

"You're not worried about the fact you might get a headache going on this thing?" Joe eventually asked after a few minutes of waiting.

"Dude, take a breath, just enjoy it," Sage laughed a bit, squeezing his hand.

"I know, I know, I'm just-" he huffed, "I don't know. On edge."

Sage's grin turned into a more sincere smile. "I mean... Joe, of course I'm a little worried. But come on, we're at Six Flags, this is the first date I've literally ever been on in my life, and you're here, too. So just enjoy it."

Joe took a deep breath. They reached the front of the line. "Thank you, Sage."

"Don't mention it."

They got on the ride, and as the track whipped them back and forth, Joe found he felt a lot more comfortable, surprisingly. When it ended and they got off he could definitely say he felt a lot calmer about the day to come. The two started walking around once again, and they came across a game stand, one of the ones that are clearly rigged but the giant stuffed animal prizes are just too good to ignore.

"Damn, look at all those," Joe laughed a bit as they passed it. Sage stopped walking and looked, too.

"Hmm. Looks easy."

"It's probably not."

He smirked. "Alright, then. Which one do you want?"

"I- huh?"

"I'm gonna win you one of the prizes."

Joe laughed. "I don't give a shit which one you win me because I promise you, you don't have the skills to win me anything."

Sage got out his wallet and the two walked up to the game stand. With a dollar paid, Sage began playing the game- one of the classic try to make the ping pong ball land in one of these cups games, and maybe it was just from the spite of everything, but Sage ended up winning one of the medium-sized prizes on the first try. Sage picked out a Minecraft sheep that was hanging up, and Joe was pretty wow-ed.

"Was that good enough for you, then?" Sage asked him as Joe stuffed the sheep away in the bag they'd brought with them. He furrowed his eyebrows, glancing between Sage and the game.

"Oh my god, you were just- that-"

"It's okay, you can be flustered."

"I'm-" he groaned. "no, it looks easy, you were right. I'm gonna play it."

Sage placed a hand on Joe's back with a smirk, beginning to lead him away from the stand. "Nu-uh, you lost, just accept the defeat."

"But you just, like, won me this cool thing, I gotta do something back now."

"You really don't have to, though," Sage chuckled a bit.

"Ugh. Come on, I'm gonna buy us food."

"Fine."

The rest of the date went by in what felt like only seconds. Joe bought the two of them Dippin' Dots, and then they dragged each other around the rest of the park, seeing attractions and agreeing with practically no verbalization that they had to go on whatever it was they saw next. Sage's hand stayed locked with Joe's for most of the day, and Joe had to say he really enjoyed that. It was nice.

Eventually, they made their rounds around the entire park and ended up near the front once more, and Sage's eyes locked to the top of a nearby rollercoaster. They'd been on a couple smaller ones already, but this one was probably the tallest in the park, with some kind of generic "this is really tall" name and maybe three or more loops that Joe could at least spot from where they were standing. He gulped. The idea of going on that didn't make him feel very good.

"Eh? How about it?" Sage asked.

"I said before, we should save the tall one for last," Joe excused.

"I mean... I don't really wanna go home but it's gonna get dark soon, we've been here for a good few hours already. We could go on this and then I can text my parents when we get off to pick us up, they'll be there to get us soon after we get out to the front."

Welp, there really wasn't any avoiding this, was there?

"Uh... yeah, I guess that works."

Sage grinned. "Oh, sweet! Yes, okay, let's go!"

Sage's grip on Joe's hand tightened, and they began to run over to the line, which was probably the biggest one they'd seen that day but it was still relatively small. They watched from the line as carts full of screaming people went around the tracks, and Joe hoped those screams were happy ones. He could tell some people were getting off the ride and getting right back in line, which was a good sign, but that didn't mean he'd be wanting to do the same by the time they got off themselves.

Joe and Sage climbed a flight or two of stairs, and then they found themselves at the top where the boarding of the actual carts was happening. As they got up there Joe eyed the middle carts, but Sage was quick to pull them up to the line for the front one before Joe could even voice where he wanted to sit. By the time he even realized which line they were in, though, a couple people had gotten in line behind them, so there really wasn't any going back.

It came their turn faster than Joe would've liked it to. He'd been hiding his nervousness the entire time they'd been in line, but as they sat down and an employee checked they were buckled in correctly, Joe realized that maybe he was scared of heights.

But Sage looked so goddamn excited, so really, it didn't matter all that much what Joe was and wasn't afraid of.

"You ready?" Sage grinned over at him a few moments after they'd been buckled in. Joe grinned back.

"Y-Yeah! Really!"

"Heh- you sure? You seem a bit nervous, Joseph."

Joe pursed his lips. He glanced around them, and then he sighed, nodding a bit. There wasn't really any use lying now that they were on the thing.

"Well, uh... I'm actually kinda, like, scared of heights? So..."

The cart pushed forward. Both took a breath, Joe out of nervousness and Sage out of very sudden concern.

"Wh- wait, are you serious?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"Bad timing, I know," Joe smiled nervously.

"Joe, you should've told me, we really didn't have to go on this, I- I don't think we can get off, now."

"I know, but like, you saw it and you looked really excited and, like- I wanted you to have a good time so I thought I'll probably be fine, it's fine."

"I've been having a great time already, there's a lot of other smaller coasters I would've been fine with going on, really."

"...Sorry."

"I- no, don't apologize to me, you didn't-" with a sigh, Sage glanced around them. Joe decided it would be best not to check how high up they were himself. "...We're getting pretty close to the top, you know."

"I'm trying not to think about it."

"Here, just- keep holding my hand, you'll be fine. Don't lean forward. It'll be quick. You can close your eyes, too."

Joe nodded, smiling nervously once more. He then made the mistake of actually glancing around them, and surely they were only about 200 feet up, but that was still pretty high. Sage rubbed his thumb over Joe's knuckles, and Joe squeezed his hand in return.

"Hey... look at me real quick?"

Joe looked over at Sage after a quick glance to see how far away they were from the top of their climb. "Uh, y-yeah?"

Sage chuckled a bit. "I know it's cliché, but we should kiss."

Joe laughed a bit in return, and his concerns eased for just a moment, allowing himself to lean over and share a very quick kiss with Sage. When they pulled away, they did so with a smile, and then Sage looked back to the front and his smile grew, and then with his scream and a sudden rush of wind around them, Joe realized they'd already gone past the top.

His reaction was delayed- he did scream, but not until they'd already dropped down past the initial ascent. His heart was beating out of his chest, but until they got to the loops, Joe was enjoying himself a bit because they were close to the ground and he was still riding the adrenaline of the kiss he'd had combined with the feeling of being so high up and then suddenly so low right after. When they got to the loops, Joe just leaned back and closed his eyes, and he stayed that way for most of the rest of the coaster, until they slowed and were inching towards the docking station once more. He took a breath in then, because he made it to the end of the ride, and that was pretty amazing in itself.

And though his hands were shaking ever-so-slightly when they got off the ride, at least he could say he did it.

Sage texted his pop to come pick them up then, as they were starting their walk back to where they'd entered the park from, and Joe kept his grip firm on his hand.

"How was it?" Sage put away his phone after a moment.

"It was better than I thought, but still pretty terrifying," Joe let out a breath.

"At least it wasn't horrible, then. Next time tell me when you don't wanna go on something, though."

"I will, I will."

"Good. Also, I was thinking, didn't we go to Disney together like five or six years ago and you were fine with the tall rides there?"

"I think that's right. I wasn't really scared of heights back then, though, I don't know what happened."

"Huh. Interesting."

"...So, your parents are on their way, right?"

"Yep. We're getting outta here."

They got out of the park quicker than they got in, and the sun was getting low but not close enough to the ground to start really setting, as it was only maybe six in the afternoon. Sage's parents wouldn't arrive for a bit longer, so the two found a bench to sit on and wait. After a few moments of them sitting in silence, Joe glanced over at his date, who was calmly on his phone.

"Hey, uh... this was really fun. So thanks," Joe said. Sage looked over at him, and he smiled.

"Don't thank me, it was a mutual fun experience. I'm glad you enjoyed it, though."

"Yeah, I did. We still have a while left of spring break, you wanna do something else this week, maybe?"

"Oh, sure. There's a couple good places nearby. I think there's an escape room place a couple miles from our neighborhood, and a roller-skating rink near that, plus mini golf, go-carting, bowling, thrifting, movies, museums, or we could go to Olive Garden or something or some other restaurant. Or we could do all of those. Doesn't matter to me."

Joe laughed a bit, raising an eyebrow. "That- sure is a lot."

Sage smirked at him. "Well, my love language isn't Quality Time for nothing, mi amor."

Sage looked back to his phone unphased after that, but Joe found himself blushing, still staring at his date. Mi amor. Mi amor? He knew what that meant, he heard Sage's pop calling his husband that all the time. And the fact that Sage called him that, too...

Joe bit the insides of his cheeks in an attempt not to smile. That felt pretty good.

"Sage?"

"Hmm?"

The word had really slipped out of Joe's mouth, he didn't actually mean to get Sage's attention. But now he had it, apparently.

"Uh... sorry, I don't know what I wanted to say."

Sage smirked a bit, and turned off his phone. "What, you just like hearing the sound of my voice?"

"Goddamnit, if you're gonna keep trying to fluster me I swear I'll do something to fluster you back."

"So our relationship is just a war now?"

"Exactly, yes."

Both laughed. They linked hands, and kept staring at each other for a moment longer, seemingly nothing else to say. Sage blinked. He glanced down to their intertwined hands, and then back to Joe's eyes.

"Weird question. Are we dating?"

Joe blinked in return. "Huh?"

"I know we were just joking with the our relationship is a war thing but, I don't know. Just made me think."

"When you called me mi amor a minute ago I kinda assumed we might be, so, uh..."

He laughed a bit. "Do you want to?"

"If you want to."

"That's not a straight answer."

"I'm not a straight person."

Sage snorted. "Oh my god. I'm trying to discuss something serious with you."

"Like you wouldn't make the exact same joke?" Joe laughed right back.

"Shut up. Okay. Just- do you want to be my boyfriend?"

"That sounds great."

Sage smiled. "Glad we got that cleared up."

"I am, too."

•~~~~•
I'm not surprised this ended up being almost 3K words

Also what do you guys want to see next? Mainly in regards to the segments that were mentioned in the intro, I have a couple ideas but I don't know what to go with

Regardless, see ya in the next one!<3