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Sapnap likes to consider himself a patient person.
For being a football player, he's probably got the least amount of pent up energy on the entire team.
He's fresh out of practice, hair damp against his forehead as his sweatshirt clings to his still somewhat wet body. Their first game is right around the corner, and the energy from practices that flows into the locker room afterwards sends him a little dizzy. He's always been quiet, sticking close to his good friends and studying hard for tests and actually trying on his homework. So, yeah, not your average footballer.
Sapnap secretly thinks that his coach thanks Dream silently every day because without the blond, he wouldn't even be on the team. It started off as a joke during the summer before Freshman year. Dream had played football for the most part of his childhood, so it only made sense to the blond to drag his best friend into the realm of shoulder pads and tight fitting pants with him as they entered high school.
Begrudgingly, Sapnap agreed.
Now, they're in their Senior year, working their way closer and closer to states.
Sapnap leaves the locker room alone, backpack on his left shoulder, practice bag on the right. He's tired, eyes heavy as he stumbles towards the door at the end of the hall. He can't wait to get home and just absolutely crash into bed and forget about everything until Helios decides to pull the sun into the sky tomorrow morning.
There's an incessant buzzing that's coming from his sweatpants, making him groan in irritation. He fumbles around for his phone as he reaches out with his other hand to open the door.
The cool evening air invades his lungs just as he pulls the device out of his pockets.
Again, Sapnap considers himself to be a patient person.
Karl's contact is lighting up his phone screen, the accept and decline call buttons stare back at him. It reminds him of one of Tommy's--the Freshman that has...something going for him--friend's sunglasses.
Dread fills his chest as Karl's call goes to voicemail and he catches sight of the onslaught of notifications that rest under his clock on his screen.
jarl kacobs, 6:45 p.m.
are you home
jarl kacobs, 6:51 p.m.
sap
jarl kacobs, 6:58 p.m.
please sap
jarl kacobs, 7:24 p.m.
nick????
Another thing, Sapnap is good at reading people. According to Karl.
He can practically feel the desperation through the phone screen at Karl's texts. The chestnut haired boy never texts like this, ever. Well, in exception to when he has panic attacks.
This doesn't feel like a panic attack, though.
sapnap, 7:26 p.m.
hey, sorry, just got out of practice
sapnap, 7:26 p.m.
are you okay? i can come over to yours if you need me, k
jarl kacobs, 7:30 p.m.
silverview park. meet me there please.
And maybe, if Karl wasn't so short with his answer, unlike his usual enthusiasm, then maybe Sapnap wouldn't be so worried.
He is worried, though.
So he hightails it to his truck, tossing his backpack and practice back into the cab, and hops into the driver seat, turning over the ignition.
Sapnap feels nostalgia pulling at his heart as he pulls down the road that Silverview is off of. It's a small and quaint park that's in the middle of an upper-class neighborhood. Karl's family used to live down here, Sapnap's pee-wee baseball games were held on the diamond in the middle of the field away from the playground. It's a painful feeling, the nostalgia, he wants to go back to those pee-wee games and orange slices. He wants to forget about the pressure on his back because of the team, the AP exams that he has to prepare for and cram all the knowledge into his head.
Being a kid was easy. Him and Karl never had it hard. They'd play on that playground for hours. Sapnap would purposefully bike from three streets down just so he got to play with Karl once they'd both finished their homework. Their moms had swapped phone numbers so that the boys could call after they got home from school and if they ever wanted to go down to the park.
Their families grew closer over the years, holidays and birthdays spent together more often than not. Dream got introduced to Karl, and they became a trio. In the years, Quackity showed up in the whirlwind that was their lives, and George showed up as a foreign exchange student somewhere in between freshman year and the summer that followed.
Then Karl's mom got cancer, at the start of sixth grade.
And, they were kids. They didn't understand the big, fancy medical words on the document that Karl's mother showed them. All they knew was the word cancer, and that it never meant anything good.
After that, the park became their safe space. The diagnosis and the chemo took a lot of money out of Karl's family's wallet, so they moved. They moved, but Karl and Sapnap still went back to the park, even more after they found out. They'd bike or walk down and just sit on the plastic that was often too hot to sit on, and let the heat that seared their legs take them to a place far away from reality.
Karl's mom passed at the start of Sophomore year.
Sapnap's never known what grieving looked or felt like, he watched it through Karl, and help the best he could.
Now though, as he puts his truck in park and gets out, staring at the figure that's sitting on the bridge that connects the two slides on their childhood playground, he grieves.
Karl is a bundle of frazzled hair and tear stained cheeks. He's shaking, worse than Sapnap's seen him when he has a panic attack, no less.
The woodchips that house the floor of the playground feel like thumbtacks under his shoes, sending physical longing for the boy on the playground as he steps closer.
"Karl?"
The chestnut haired whips his head around, frantic eyes landing on his best friend standing below him. Something like a relieved sob rips its way out of Karl's throat, hopping off of the plastic to bury himself down in Sapnap's arms.
Chronos holds them together, let's Karl lose himself in Sapnap's hold as the younger-but evidently taller-holds him close. Sapnap holds Karl tight, like if he holds him close enough, he can glue all of his atoms back together.
"What happened, K?" Sapnap asks once Karl's shaking has subsided for the most part, and every other sound in the neighborhood comes flooding back into his ears. Karl flinches at his question, but he makes no move to leave Sapnap's arms. "'M dad..." Is what Sapnap gets in response. The younger frowns, he knows that Karl and his dad don't have the best relationship. They haven't, not since...
Karl pulls away, making Sapnap's train of thought absolutely derail.
The setting sun behind Sapnap washes Karl in a pink hue, illuminating his features tenfold.
The air, now, is too thin. Sapnap doesn't feel like he should be allowed to breathe in Karl's space, in front of this angel that's been bestowed upon him. He's never thought that he was worthy enough to be in Karl's presence, like the boy was a paper doll, crafted carefully from Aphrodite herself and made to walk amongst humans like it was no big deal.
And really, to Sapnap, it should be no big deal.
But he can't help himself, sometimes. He can't help staring at pink lips that stretch into the most beautiful smile he's ever seen. He can't help but admire Karl's crooked two front teeth that he finds an absolute enamor in. Whenever he finds himself staring at Karl, there's this tightness in his chest as butterflies clang around the cage that is his stomach. Every time, without fail.
He should feel guilty, for looking at something so beautiful, that could break even if you touched it, but he doesn't.
In whatever way it may be, Karl is his and he is Karl's.
And he's just--
"What if we run away?" Karl's question shoots through Sapnap's thoughts, pulling him back into the present. Sapnap cocks an eyebrow at him, leaning out to pull him close again. "Yeah? Where'd you wanna go, Jacobs?" He asks as he leads the older boy up the stairs to the tallest slide in the park. They sit down, Karl in the front, with Sapnap behind him; arms wrapped tightly around the lanky boy's waist. "New York," Karl breathes out, and that punches a laugh out of Sapnap. "Yeah? Run away from our shit hometown together and go live in the big city?" Sapnap starts, and Karl? He takes it, and fucking runs.
"We'd get a cat and have so many plants...I'd finally be able to get wood pallets for a bedframe, and you'd let me cuz you love me so much..." Sapnap's arms subconsciously tighten around Karl. You love me so much, and Sapnap has no idea how to tell him he's completely and utterly right.
"I'd get you a studio apartment, because I know how much having space to breathe means to you..." It's a soft reveal, but Karl just keens back towards him. "Yeah? Just for me?"
"Mhm, just for you," Sapnap murmurs, resting his chin on top of Karl's hair. The boy's body goes lax in his hold at that, bony hands coming up to envelop his own.
And in a fleeting spike of anxiety, the words tumble from Sapnap's lips.
"You'll stay, though, right?"
Karl turns his head to look at him over his shoulder. "You already know the answer to that, Nick," Karl reminds him, and the younger hopes that the brunette can't feel his heart thundering through his chest. "Remind me?" Sapnap asks weakly, like his vocal chords have been snipped with scissors. Karl just grins, though, maneuvering around so that he's splayed across Sapnap's lap; head and feet resting against the plastic covering of the slide. "We both finish high school, save up all of our paychecks from work..." Absentminded fingers are working their way across Sapnap's face, tracing his bone structure. "We decide on whether or not college is our thing, and if it is, we go together. We get an apartment and jobs, we...we love each other through everything that happens and we always make sure the other comes home safe."
And what Karl's saying, is true. Their plan from the summer of Sophomore year, two months after Karl's mother passed.
"Okay, okay," Sapnap breathes out, resting his forehead against Karl's temple.
"He didn't hurt you did he?" Sapnap asks once the sun has turned the sky a deep purple. They're walking back towards Sapnap's truck, close together as Karl keeps a tight hold on the football player's hand. The brunette has a spaced out look in his eyes, staring off into the disappearing sun. "No...no he didn't hurt me, just opened up my eyes and proved a hell of a lot."
Sapnap hums, pulling Karl closer as they step onto the asphalt.
They've always been...something more than friends. There's no doubt about it. Between the lingering touches and fleeting kisses to either the cheek or forehead, Sapnap's found himself falling even deeper. He holds so much enamor for Karl, he finds it crazy that he hasn't just exploded at this point, honestly.
Karl's never been one for labels, though, just happily takes and takes; and Sapnap is more than willing to keep giving.
In the hot summer, one year after Karl's mom, they got extremely close...Closer than just best friends do. They spent most of their days together, whether it be at the park or at Sapnap's house, they were together.
Now, Sapnap's staring at a sunset he's seen over a thousand times, seen these trees that block it at the right angle have green, yellow, red, orange, and no leaves at all. He's seen this scene a thousand times over, but there's never been this much tension in the air.
"Did you really mean it?" Karl asks as he leans against the bed of the truck. Sapnap glances at him from the corner of his eye, finding Karl already staring at him. "Mean what?" He's playing dumb, wasting time as Karl stares at him incredulously. "Us, running away, getting a studio apartment and a cat together."
And it's always the hard questions with him, isn't it?
"Um, I mean, yeah--yeah, if you wanted to...I wouldn't want to rush you or anything--" And he's rambling, like a fool, because that's all Karl can turn him in to.
Karl cuts him off with a swift tug to the collar of his sweater. Sapnap's face flares, mouth gaping open as he tries to say something to Karl.
And his brain completely short circuits as Karl's lips land on his. Aphrodite must be watching again, because Sapnap's never felt anything like this. Karl's lips are soft, just like he is as a whole. That's all he's ever been; is soft. He wears too-big sweaters that swamp his skinny frame. The skinny jeans he always wears aren't even skin tight like they're supposed to be. He's always a flurry of soft fabric whenever he greets Sapnap in the morning with his hugs, and the younger has always been grateful for that.
It takes Sapnap a painstakingly long time to realize he isn't kissing back, and that's when Karl starts to pull away.
The older boy's face is flushed red, in shame or embarrassment, Sapnap doesn't know.
"Shit, Sap, did I go too far? I didn't mean to, God, I'm so sorry--" And then it's Karl's turn to ramble.
Thankfully, Sapnap has a better way of dealing with it.
He's got Karl caged in to his truck, left index finger coming up to lift his chin as he leans down to connect their lips again. The brunette lets a noise of shock escape him, but his hands come up to wrap around Sapnap's shoulders.
They stay like that for a couple of moments, just them in their own little bubble.
Karl pulls away first, still leaning his head against Sapnap's forehead. "So, d'you mean it?" And Sapnap laughs, pressing another kiss to Karl's lips.
"I'll go wherever you go, baby. You got me for however long you want me."
Karl smiles again, "then I want you for forever."