Work Text:
“Why are your Earthlings so loud?”
Earth turned towards Venus, blinking hard. His voice was almost drowned out by the combination of the fountain water behind them and the various conversations of Earthlings around them, but he was still loud enough to hear. “What?”
Venus shot him a look, pressing a hand against one ear. “They’re all screaming.”
“Not—” He was interrupted as an Earthling teenager ran directly in front of them, holding something above his head as he gleefully shouted behind him. “Not all of them,” he continued, grinning sheepishly. “Maybe they’re just happy.”
Venus arched an eyebrow. “Hmm.”
“Hey, I brought you here to have fun,” Earth protested. “Not to insult my Earthlings.”
“I’m not insulting your Earthlings.”
“You are in spirit!” Earth threw his arms wide. “Let them scream!” He got a few funny looks from several of the Earthlings in their vicinity and grinned sheepishly again, setting his arms back down before scooting closer to Venus along the edge of the fountain, ignoring the sidelong glance he was sent. “See? Not all of them are screaming.”
“Now you are,” Venus said, leaning just slightly backward.
“Okay, I guess I was,” Earth admitted, fanning one hand in the air. “But I’m special. You don’t mind.” He batted his eyelashes. “Right?” Venus did nothing but give him a deadpan look… though Earth did take the slightest upward twitch in his lips as a sign of victory. “Anyway,” he said, scooting a little further away to give Venus his space back, “What are we going to do?”
Venus’s expression wrinkled. “This is your surface. I don’t know anything about it.”
Earth tapped at his lips. “We could go get ice cream?” It was plenty warm outside—though definitely not warm for Venus, considering how he’d wrapped his arms around himself, nails digging into his upper arms. “Or maybe go somewhere warmer? You’re looking a little… cold, there.”
“I’m not cold,” Venus said, his words ruined by the fact that when he dropped his arms, he shivered minutely. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Earth blinked at him, staying silent until Venus rolled his eyes and looked away. “I thought you’d already know what to do. You’re the one who brought me here.”
Earth blew out a sigh.
That’s just because I just wanted to hang out with you, he didn’t say.
Instead, he leaned over and nudged his elbow into Venus’s side. “Here! Let’s just go for a walk around the park. We’ll do a circle and come right back here. It’ll make you feel warmer if we actually move, and we can look around the park.” He stood up without waiting for Venus’s answer and held out one hand towards him. “Come on?”
Venus gave a low grumble but did stand up, grabbing his hand for a mere second before letting it fall.
Still, the warmth of his hand made Earth feel a little giddy, his smile wide enough to ache—and he could see the slightest tint of red in Venus’s ears, just barely visible behind the scattered strands of his hair. “The Earthlings like to have paths in all of the parks,” he said, starting to walk—and without even having to say anything, Venus stepped into pace with him, mere inches away. It was probably just to avoid bumping into Earthlings, but still…
Earth let his hand casually drop to his side, brushing against Venus’s as they walked.
—And Venus didn’t move away.
“So we can just follow the path, and we should loop right back around to the fountain,” he added, cheerily. He was careful not to mention how much their hands were brushing together. Venus would definitely move away if he did.
“Yeah, yeah.”
His smile stayed static as he glanced around at all of the trees around them, watching Venus out of the corner of his eye whenever he got the opportunity—and Venus looked almost fascinated (for him, at least), his eyes jumping all over the place, his expression drawn into something like amazement as he looked at the greenery around the path. It made Earth almost feel prideful, and he pulled his eyes away from Venus to instead look forward, almost skipping before he wrangled the excitement back down.
“It’s summertime here,” he said, throwing a glance at Venus. Their eyes locked together for the barest moment before Venus looked away, eyes on the ground. “So all of the greenery is… well, green! In winter time, the trees usually lose all of their leaves and it doesn’t look as good.”
Venus said something that Earth couldn’t quite hear. “What?”
“Nothing.”
When Venus didn’t answer for another minute, Earth just shrugged. “Anyway, I could probably tell you what trees all of these are.” He tilted his head to the side. “If you want…” he added, drawing the word out. “Or we could just walk in silence.”
For a few more minutes until I get bored and start talking again, he didn’t say.
Venus coughed into his hand, the sound obviously fake. “You can tell me the trees,” he muttered.
“You want to hear about the trees?” Earth grinned—he didn’t press anymore, sure that if he did Venus wouldn’t let him do it at all. “Well, that one’s—” He pointed towards the trees with his opposite hand and started naming all of the ones he could find, and then he moved on to all of the flowers they saw, and then the animals, and then just about everything; and all the while, Venus just stared at him, the tiniest of smiles twitching at his lips.
It made him feel even warmer than the outside air, the sunlight beaming down on them.
(And the sunlight did such pretty things to Venus’s hair. It was almost impossible to look away.)
Before long, they wound up right by the fountain again, and Earth plopped down onto the edge, grinning up at Venus before he patted right next to him. “Wasn’t that fun?”
Venus sat down—not as close as he wanted, but close enough that Earth didn’t move, just kept smiling at him, raising his eyebrows.
“Yes,” he admitted after another second. “It was fun.” He averted his eyes, hands fisting on either side of him. “…Thank you.”
Earth’s grin widened so much it hurt. “You’re welcome,” he said back, unable to resist leaning in towards him. “I thought you’d like the park. It’s as pretty as you.” Venus’s head jerked towards him—and for a moment, he did nothing but look taken aback, the tips of his ears going red. Earth just kept grinning, blinking innocently at him.
What? Sue him. He liked seeing Venus flustered.
“Earth,” Venus finally said, lifting one hand and pointing at him. “Is this another goddess of beauty thing? I swear…”
His smile dropped. “What? No! I meant—I mean you do fit the moniker, but—” Before he could finish his sentence, Venus gave him a deadpan look and shoved an elbow into his side, unbalancing him completely from his position half-leaning towards him. “Hey!” Earth slipped off the edge—and down into the fountain, completely drenching himself in water. “Venus!”
For a moment, Venus looked almost surprised, his eyes wide, mouth half-open.
Earth narrowed his eyes. “You did not just push me into the fountain, man.”
Venus opened and then closed his mouth—and then crossed his arms over his chest. “Maybe I did. It’s your fault.”
“You pushed me in,” he protested, standing up as the water dripped down from his clothes, from his hair, from his skin. He was soaked. “Dude!” He wrung the hem of his hoodie out… and then grinned before wrestling it down, an idea suddenly coming to mind. “Ugh,” he groaned, fanning his hands in the air. “Just help me out, Venus.”
Venus looked at him suspiciously. “Don’t you dare pull me in, Earth.”
“Why would I do that!?” Earth said, blinking hard. Oh, he was totally doing that. “Neither of us wants to be soaked.” He could hear the Earthlings in the background chattering to each other, and already he could feel eyes on him—but he didn’t care that much. He was too focused on Venus. “Just help me out.”
Still looking suspicious, Venus reached out and grasped his hand, bracing himself against the fountain edge. “Fine,” he grumbled. “I’ll—”
Earth pulled him into the fountain.
“Earth!” Venus’s voice went high with surprise and indignation, his clothes completely soaked, hair plastered to the sides of his face as he immediately jumped to his feet, glaring down at him. “What the fuck?”
He looked like an angry cat. He looked cute.
Earth couldn’t help it. He immediately burst into laughter, bending at the waist as he clasped one hand over his mouth, shoulders shaking. “I—I had to,” he said, almost choking on his laughter. “Sorry, man.”
“Oh, you’ll be sorry,” Venus gritted out, pulling him up with a grip on his arm. Earth didn’t even try to pull away, Venus’s hand a warm brand against his skin. “You idiot.” He pushed him backward, rolling his eyes; Earth let himself be pushed, still laughing.
—And then he paused, jerking his head backward as something fell when he backed into it.
The statue in the middle of the fountain was drooping precariously, and Earth made a surprised sound, lashing one hand out to try to catch it only to fail completely, his fingertips barely brushing it as it crashed to the ground with a loud thud… and then shattered into several pieces.
His mouth dropped.
“Oops.”
Around them, Earthlings were all staring, jaws dropped, their eyes wide.
Earth whipped around and grabbed Venus’s arm, pulling them both out of the fountain. “I think we need to—”
“HEY!”
He was interrupted by a loud, angry shout; and turned to see several people running towards them, clad in an outfit that could only mean they were park security.
“Oops,” Earth said, again, eyes widening before he turned and booked it, hand still wrapped tight around Venus’s arm. “We need to get out of here,” he panted, shooting a glance back at Venus, who just looked irritated.
“What the hell, Earth?!”
“Hey, I didn’t mean to do that!” He turned off the path into the trees and ignored several branches scratching his face and arms. “But unless you feel like letting the Earthlings yell at you, we need to leave!”
“Then take us back!” Venus snapped, voice rising in frustration.
“I can’t! We’re running!” Technically… he could. But this was way more fun.
“Then stop running!”
Earth stopped next to a bench, listening to the sound of the Earthling security shouting behind them—and then did several things in the same moment.
He materialized a blanket and slung it around Venus’s head to cover his hair—Venus struggled for a moment (again like an angry cat, he couldn’t help but think) before Earth lurched forward, grabbing one of his hands and lifting it to press against the back of his head to hide his own hair. “Just follow what I do,” he hissed, ignoring Venus’s responding noise as he jolted forward, pulling the blanket tighter around him as he—
Well.
Kissed him.
Venus immediately froze, eyes wide and staring directly into his.
Earth dried them both off as he pushed closer, their foreheads knocking together. Venus’s lips were warm—if non-responsive—against his. Earth pulled back slightly, still close enough that he could feel the heat of Venus’s breath fanning against his lips.
“Just kiss me back,” he hissed under his breath, voice low. “Trust me.”
Venus’s hand curled tighter in his hair—and then he groaned with annoyance and leaned forward, pressing their lips together just as several of the Earthlings burst into the clearing. Earth made an exaggerated sound of pleasure that transitioned into a real one, his eyes closing as Venus tilted his head to find a better angle.
He almost forgot the Earthlings behind them completely as he fell into the sensations. “Oh—sorry,” he heard, an apologetic stammer followed closely the sound of shuffling that quickly grew more and more distant.
It’d worked. Somehow. The Earthlings were gone.
Not that Earth pulled away. Instead, he deepened the kiss, nipping hard at Venus’s bottom lip as he immediately responded, tugging hard at his hair. It had definitely started as more of a distraction, but Earth was enjoying it far too much for it to be that anymore.
He only pulled away when his chest started aching, the sudden need to breathe almost overwhelming.
Panting, he grinned at Venus, unable to help it as his eyes fell down to his very obviously kiss-swollen lips. “I should have done that ages ago.”
“What… the hell, Earth?” Venus finally said, his voice low, thick with disbelief and a tinge of something else—something that wasn’t quite anger. His face was tinted darker, the tips of his ears a burning red. “What was that?!”
“It got the Earthlings to go away, didn’t it? They’re squeamish about stuff like that.”
“You kissed me just to get them to go away?” Venus’s eyes narrowed, and he frowned, lip curling. “What—”
Earth leaned in, knocking their foreheads together again. “Not entirely because of that,” he said, still grinning. “Maybe I just wanted to kiss you, too.”
Venus stiffened, his eyes immediately averting. “What?”
Earth shrugged, finally just throwing caution to the wind. Why not? “I wanted to kiss you. Have for a while, you know.” He leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Venus, letting the blanket dissolve completely. “It’s the only reason I had the idea.” He couldn’t help a laugh, tucking his face against Venus’s neck—he was stiff for another moment, but finally relaxed, letting out a grumble that vibrated through his throat.
“You’re insufferable.”
“Good thing you like that,” Earth quipped, leaning back only to draw him straight into another kiss.
And this time, Venus responded from the start, one hand threading back into his hair to tug hard as he tilted his head—and Earth let himself fall into the rhythm, forgetting everything but Venus against him.
A very nice minute later, Venus pulled away entirely, taking a few steps back as Earth pouted, blinking at him. He looked suitably disheveled, and Earth couldn’t help but turn his pout into a grin, committing the moment to memory. “Take us back,” he grumbled, looking everywhere but at him.
“Oh, sure,” Earth said, still grinning wide. He could still feel the ghostly warmth of Venus’s lips against his. “We can continue this up there.” Venus gave him a sharp look finally—though he did wet his lips when Earth reached out to catch his hand, the sight sending a burst of glee through his core.
…Maybe he could find another excuse to kiss him.
…Or he could just ask.
But one of those options was way more fun than the other.